academic adventurer

Neues blog / New blog

2008-10-06T13:53:00.001+03:00

Dies ist ein mittlerweile nicht mehr genutztes blog, weiter geschrieben wird hier...
This blog is not in use anymore, the "adventure" continues here...

http://www.positive-ecology.org/blog2/

just a quick check

2008-10-02T12:25:00.000+03:00

I think I need to update something - so this is just for checking

Update

2008-09-30T17:01:00.003+03:00

Time for a post in English, but first, a note in German:

Meine Website erhält (was die Technik angeht) ein Upgrade, dadurch könnten kleinere Probleme auftreten. Ausserdem will ich deutschsprachig video-bloggen, das dauert aber seine Zeit... Jetzt ist allerdings den Rest der Woche frei, die Zeit also hoffentlich zu finden.

Okay, then. My website is being upgraded (technology-wise), so there might be some delays. There are some delays anyways, since I've been here in China for almost a month already, but have only been with an internet connection for a few days.

In the meantime, I've found places I like to go, routes for my running/training, met nice people, come to know my students a bit better, finished the formalities that were necessary, not only been connected to the web, but also outfitted with gas for cooking (which I haven't been doing, going out for food is a lot of fun and cheaper than cooking yourself) and for the warm water-heater for the shower.
I even went out documenting some of the chile peppers that can be found here. (And I found that my chile pepper-related website cannot be reached in ordinary ways, it's blocked... that may be one more reason to get its English-language version up and running, though: Maybe then it would be even more obvious that it's innocuous...).

Lots to write about, and lots will follow. The plan is to video-blog in German, and write in English. Now, the rest of the week is free time, so I hope to get some things done.

Peace, Out. G.

Intro-Video, und Erste Eindrücke von Tag 1

2008-09-25T03:35:00.007+03:00

Video: 25.9.2008, zur Einleitung

[Update: Habe zwei Versuche gemacht, das Video gleich hier eingebettet zu haben, beides wollte nicht funktionieren. Jetzt ist es über diesen Link - http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1157136073537806510&hl=en - auf Google Video zu erreichen. Hoffe ich zumindest!]

[Update 2: Ich versuche es jetzt auch mal mit YouTube:]

In China - Erste Eindrücke

(geschrieben 6.9.2008, "Tag 1")

Flug - eigentlich deren drei - mit viel Warterei,
aber es klappt alles.
Erinnerung an den China-Trip 2004: Chinesische Flugzeuge starten mit ausgefahrenen Landeklappen.
Mehr das klappt.
Interessante Ausblicke aufs Land am Weg nach Beijing, aber auch schon Fabrik-Rauchfahnen die sich entlang des Bodens in die nächsten Täler erstrecken. Am Flug nach Changsha, kaum mehr Ausblick. Der erste chinesische Sonnenuntergang ist eindrucksvoll, mit dichter, diesiger Luft darunter.

Landeanflug in der Nacht, durch die Wolkendecke. Immer wieder bemerkenswert wie finster die chinesische Nacht ist. Man sieht so viel über die Glitzerwelt Shanghais, hört so viel über dieses und jenes. Welch' ein Unterschied im Energieverbrauch aber schon zwischen den europäischen Strassenlaternen entlang jedes grösseren Wegerls und dem Mangel an Beleuchtung allerorts ausser an grössten Strassen.

Abholen vom Flughafen klappt auch, Herr Huang und gleich noch eine Kollegin vom Büro für internationalen Austausch und noch ein weiterer Lehrer aus dem Ausland (für Englisch).

Chinesische Autobahn bei Nacht. Moderne Mautstationen, ewige Verkehrsregeln: im Zweifelsfall hat der stärkere Recht, der kleinere und schnellere kann aber rechts vorbei und in der Lücke durch.

Im Quartier: wirklich ganz neu gebaut. So neu dass noch einiges zu tun ist: Noch kein Gas, damit kein Warmwasser, auch noch kein Internet. Dafür neuer Computer, Mikrowelle, Waschmaschine, TV, westliches Klo...

Abendessen ausgeschlagen. Vielleicht nicht gut für das soziale Leben, aber der Schlafmangel war schon stärker. Mitten in der Nacht aufgewacht mit dem Gedanken, wahrscheinlich nicht gut schlafen zu können. Erst gegen sieben aufgewacht.
Etwas geputzt, eingerichtet, dann eine erste Runde durch die Stadt. Nun gut, durch die nähere Umgebung. Das meiste hier scheint der Universitätscampus zu sein, was davon aber Stadt und was Uni ist, lässt sich - noch - nicht so ganz leicht sagen. Aber wieder einmal dieses Gefühl: Man sammelt "Hellos!" und diesmal sogar schon "Good Mornings!", ist offensichtlich kein Einheimischer, aber kann sich leicht weniger fremd vorkommen als anderswo. Man ist einfach Mensch unter vielen.
Wobei, es hat auch einen Park in der Nähe, einen grösseren Lotusteich und zumindest einen kleineren, und da hat es einige Stellen an denen man sich plötzlich allein mit dem Kreischein und Zirpen von Insekten vorkommt. Meine Laufstrecke wüsste ich so jedenfalls schon, muss aber noch sehen, ob ich mich tatsächlich mit den Lauftights in die Öffentlichkeit wage.
Die ersten Marktbesucher im Nachtgewand waren aber auch schon zu sehen. Überhaupt die üblichen kleinen Stände - was heisst Stände: ein Fleck Boden tut's vielen auch schon. Etwas Fleisch, viel Gemüse. Die mindestens fünf ersten Chilli- und Paprikasorten für meine Sammlung. Frosch im Sack. Fisch. Einer davon - Aal? nicht ganz, aber irgendwie doch... Biologie ist doch lang her, das ohnehin nicht mein Thema - macht sich auf den Weg. Aber nicht lange. Dann ist er wieder im Korb.

Oft genug, für mich, die Frage nach der Biologie: Kürbis rankt sich durch die Gegend. Kein Problem. Etwas anderes rankt sich, dass man Angst bekommt davor stehen zu bleiben ("Ruins" hatte mir zwar nicht sehr gefallen, aber ein solches Bild behält man dann ja doch im Kopf). Ich glaube, ich sollte/könnte wissen was es ist. Wenn's mir jemand sgen würde - aber bitte mit lateinischem Namen, hätte ich es mir wohl gedacht. Asiatische Kermesbeere und Bambus wenigstens sind alte Bekannte; vieles ist aber auch nur "bekannt", weil es wenigstens erkennbar eine Pflanze, eine Baumart ist. Maulbeere in der Ritze? Schon besser. Eine Paulownie die sich mit ihren typisch monströs grossen Blättern aus dem Unterholz entlanggearbeitet hat? Scheint ganz so. Dann wieder Blätter die bekannt aussehen - und ganz typisch - für die ich aber dennoch keinen Namen habe.

Nun gut, eigentlich war ich ja inzwischen am Markt:
Frösche im Sack. Ob mein Chinesisch reichen würde um zu fragen wie man denn die zubereitet? Zum Glück habe ich ja ohnehin noch kein Gas für die Kochstelle ;-)
Aber wie gehabt: Genug Gemüse. Darunter auch genug erkennbares. Eben Chili und Paprika, Süsskartoffeln, zwei Sorten Ingwer, viel an Kürbis, ein paar Tomaten.

Mittagsruhe. Es ist hier noch kuschelig warm, diesig und mit höherer Luftfeuchtigkeit wie üblich. Aber das kenne ich ja doch schon. Objektiv gesehen kannte ich es gar nicht so sehr, sicher nicht so sehr wie ich es wollte. Das wird sich jetzt wohl ändern.
Es ist hier in der Provinz, gleichzeitig - mit den drei Städten Changsha, Xiangtan und Zhangzhou als eine Industrieentwicklungszone, aber nicht hintennach. Mir wichtig am "in der Provinz sein" ist ja auch, dass ich hier schon in den weniger als 24 Stunden die ich jetzt da bin, mehr Chinesisch gehört habe als in den Jahren in denen ich es lernen wollte zuvor. Zumindest in der Praxis, nicht aus dem Lehrbuch.
Dem sollte ich mich wohl gleich noch widmen. Scheint so als würden so manche aus dem Ausland kaum Chinesisch lernen; scheint mir seltsam. Wie dem auch sei...

Finally! - Endlich!

2008-09-24T14:13:00.002+03:00

Endlich online, nach fast drei Wochen ohne Internetanschluss, ein Monat nach dem letzten blog-Eintrag... Updates kommen bald, schliesslich sind dies auch fast drei Wochen die ich jetzt schon wieder in China bin!

Finally online, after three weeks without internet connection, a month after last writing on this blog... updates will follow soon. After all, it's also been nearly three weeks that I've been in China already. Of course, quite a bit has been happening!

Ein Anfang mit Deutsch

2008-08-21T07:35:00.001+03:00

Will ich doch gleich auch einmal einen Eintrag auf Deutsch verfassen. Es ist ja auch der Anfang eines wieder neuen Kapitels...

"Ab nach China"

So könnte man das wohl nennen. Der Monat Juli begann mit Absagen, einer für ein weiteres Studium in Japan, einer für eine Lektorenstelle im Bereich Germanistik in China.
Aus der zweiten Absage erwuchs allerdings eine Möglichkeit - die ich zuerst gar nicht für wahrscheinlich hielt - aus der nach einer Bewerbung und etwas Hin-und-Her tatsächlich Realität wurde: Das Germanistik-Institut der Universität Xiangtan in Hunan suchte Lektoren und ich bekam (m)eine Chance. (Die dritte Bewerbung dieses Jahres, im Rahmen des Chinese Government Scholarship Programme, EU window, wäre auch erfolgreich gewesen und hätte mich auch nach Hunan geführt. In die Provinzhaupt- und Nachbarstadt...)

Der August ist jetzt natürlich vollgepackt mit Vorbereitungen, sowohl an Formalitäten als auch an Notwendigkeiten - inklusive der Kleinigkeit, zu überlegen ob ich nun weiterhin auf Englisch (als lingua franca) oder doch auf Deutsch (als Sprache der wahrscheinlich meisten meiner Leser und meiner zukünftigen Studenten) bloggen sollte...
Mal sehen ob ich es irgendwann während des Jahres schaffe, auch Chinesisch zu nutzen.

Heute jedenfalls - nicht mehr rechtzeitig um nicht meinen Flug ändern zu müssen, aber immerhin endlich - habe ich erfahren, dass die Dokumente die für den Visumsantrag notwendig sind nun endgültig zu mir auf dem Weg sind.

The road ahead...

2008-08-21T07:30:00.000+03:00

... leads East again.
Far East, in fact: Since I last wrote, what was a possibility then, has now become reality.

Mid-July, I was told that I could still apply for a position at the German studies department of Xiangtan University, Hunan. At the end of July, there was further inquiry about my qualifications (since I hadn't done German studies). Soon after, I got the job.

The same day that I went to the doctor's to get the health certificate necessary to apply for the visa, I received word that I would also have received a scholarship under the Chinese Government Scholarship Programme's EU Window (and also for Hunan). Through August, I was busy getting everything necessary in order and preparing lectures.

Today, after a pretty long wait (bureaucracy, especially with the Olympic Games... you know how it is), I learnt that the documents I need to apply for my visa/work permit are finally on their way. By now, I need to change my flight date to make sure it all works out time-wise, but at least I'm getting there. (The reason I had not written in a while is because I don't like writing about that sort of waiting game.)

I'll be teaching German, this blog started out in English mainly because English is the lingua franca for Campus Europae (and anyways)... so now I'm wondering if I should switch to German, go bi-lingual, or just mix it... I'm really more curious to see if I'll manage to mix in some Chinese by the end of the year, though.

A Day to Remember

2008-08-19T19:27:00.000+03:00

Went to Vienna, running some errands.

In the light rail car: two women, chatting in Russian.

Went past St. Stephen's. Tons of tourists. One group I passed by: Latvians. By now, I recognize the language by the second word I hear.

Later, had a look into the Meinl am Graben, Vienna's luxury supermarket - heard more Russian and had a little chat. In German...

Wrapping Up, and Looking Ahead

2008-07-16T19:07:00.000+03:00

Been writing up a little reflection on my experiences with the Campus Europae exchange studies in Latvia: http://www.positive-ecology.org/cv/CampusEuropae-Latvia.html

Also, inquired about accreditation of courses for English. Went better than expected; with a little luck, it will go pretty well.

Out of the one China application that was futile, another opportunity has opened up. I'm trying not to get my hopes up, but at least it is one more chance.

Between Times

2008-07-13T20:29:00.000+03:00

So, two of my three applications for going to East Asia have amounted to nothing; the decision on the last one will only become known mid-August. I'm not really hopeful anymore, but still waiting.

Meanwhile, this week I have started organizing accreditation of the courses I took in Latvia, and also of former lectures in biology for a potential teacher training in biology at University of Salzburg. I've been finding that I need to have biology, not only (but along with) languages and associated cultural issues be part of my work even in teacher training/teaching.
Should I really not make it to East Asia, the application for the second year abroad with Campus Europae will be handed in this summer... and I should have the money necessary for a little research trip in Europe.

Work is progressing with writing, both where publications and where my (planned, started, and immediately "resting") professional blogs are concerned. Planned timeframe: Finishing the first of these things this month. Let's see if I really manage that. Sure would be good to finally get a sense of progress... I've recently not felt like a researcher, even though I did some research and have been working on writing it up. It would be a lot better if I had a job (i.e., earned money) with that, but getting something published would be a step to breaking through my impasse, too.

Where training is concerned... that's another post today.

Recovery Week

2008-07-13T20:20:00.002+03:00

The (lower) legs were pretty sore from the mountain marathon / Bergmarathon on July 5, and that for quite a while. Still, time to continue training - and blogging it.

July 8: on the bike - 00:53:34 - 13.82 km - avg. HR 106 - TE 1.5
Cross-training like that was very nice, I'm doing something this way, getting a low training effect for once, and still not abusing my legs.

7/11: running again - 00:50:30 - 8.44 km - avg. HR 138 - TE 2.5
Running early in the morning to stay out of the heat (and to get in training before almost everything else), and it seems to have been very nice and easy. The legs are still a little heavy, but almost back to normal; I do wonder, though, if the heart rate is low because I'm doing better or because of some effect of overtraining...

7/12: biking - 01:09:05 - 20.78 km - avg. HR 109 - TE 1.4another nice and easy ride, not least, to keep doing something
7/13: and back to running yet again - 01:22:57 - 13.89 km - avg. HR 148 - TE 3.3Looking, and feeling, good.

I am starting to think I really ought to find another event to train towards, and soon ;-)

Bergmarathon 2008 Report

2008-07-08T23:05:00.001+03:00

By the organizers' description, Europe's most beautiful mountain run,
according to many participants, the hardest event...

70 km, 4300 meters of ascent are quite something, after all.
My GPS-POD actually recorded a distance of 85 km, but it jumped around like crazy...also, according to my Suunto t6c's analysis, I burnt nearly 10500 kcal.
A normal day's worth is 2000-3000 kilocalories.

It took me 14 hours and 10 minutes.
And yes, indeed, it is beautiful. And hard. - Just check out the altitude profile:

... read on and see more here.

Bergmarathon

2008-07-08T13:35:00.001+03:00

Report is coming soon; posts while on the move (which were never finished) have been deleted

blog rename

2008-07-04T10:28:00.001+03:00

An old friend of my father's came by for a visit. His comment to my life so far - studies, sojourns abroad, plans and proposals: "an academic adventurer."

I've realized something.
Talking about the things I'm doing as manyfold - as "me, myself, and I" (the old title of my blog) - fits with the outside view. The view of those same kinds of people who were amazed when I started studying and was an adventurous student - dedicated, but to the connection between some fields rather than to single-field specialization. And who now see my success with that, but either choose to complain that I did not yet finish more, or denigrate it by arguing that a person would only follow so many interests if he did not really know what he wanted.
The one is nothing I can change right now; the latter, simply wrong.

I know what I want, and I am following that with all dedication.
If detours such as into school teaching are necessary, then so be it. (I'll still be a more interesting and interested teacher than those who only want it as an easy job.)
It may look as if I were interested in too many unrelated things, but they all come from the same source and feed the same purpose: understanding the human condition as a part of this world, and influencing our move towards sustainability.

In honor of an awareness of this, to fit my own view, and in honor of Eddie, my dad's long-time friend, former colleague, and an adventurous person himself, I've decided to rename my blog.

Always being right...

2008-07-02T13:31:00.002+03:00

It's a real curse to always be right.
As expected, I got a letter informing me that I would not be receiving the Monbukagakusho scholarship.

I'm still a bit mad about the committee and what it focused on (such as, my not focusing only and exclusively on Japan), and my own failure to explain my plans and motivations better.

And I'm really mad at those rejection letters: You are supposed to learn from your mistakes, but you are never told what motivates a rejection.
Then again, I met a former classmate recently. She is now also studying (or rather, soon finishing) teacher training in one of the subjects in which she had earlier received her master's. Why the switch to a different kind of career? She had been working unsatisfactory jobs, applying for a research project, only to be told that she were a woman, and the persons responsible thought they shouldn't pick a woman for that project since it were in Sicily. - Wow, a case in which you know what was the fault. Very helpful knowledge, that.

I still haven't learnt about the China application I should already know something about. In the meantime, I'm getting older, soon I won't be in a position to apply for another post-doc scholarship because too much time will have passed between then and when I received my doctorate, and if I applied, I guess they would tell me that I didn't have enough research experience. Still, I'll be trying.

Now - well, tomorrow, actually - off to Altmünster for the Bergmarathon. As I said before: Something that (also) takes stamina and perseverance, but at least is not contingent on what other people think of you, but on yourself. Let's see how far I get there...

Bergmarathon - 1 Week To Go

2008-06-28T08:24:00.002+03:00

That time's upon us... just one more week.

Like before Stockholm Marathon, I'm vacillating between feeling quite confident, and thinking it's quite too much I want to do there.

At least, I much prefer being nervous about this to being nervous about the decision on the Monbukagakusho application (which, as I forgot to mention yesterday, we will learn about already next week). After all, it's my own physical and psychological capabilities which are decisive here, not what a committee thinks of what I wrote and said and seemed like.

Still, when I remember that one or another of my posts announcing that I'll participate in that event comes among the first results when looking for info on the Bergmarathon... OMG... Well, as with so many things, I'll just have to see how it goes. And first of all, to hope that the weather will be all right.

Bad Vibe about Monbu Application

2008-06-27T20:07:00.004+03:00

Yesterday, I had language test(s) for the Monbukagakusho scholarship application.

My English test results, as I learned today, were very good.
Not a surprise... it included texts like I always deal with, and tests like these I wrote myself. You get 60 minutes to take the test, I was finished after 30.
Japanese was a different matter. Or would have been, if it counted as part of the application (it's only for seeing how much the applicant already knows).

Funny thing happened after that: I walked past a group of Spanish, and one commented: "Que guapo." A little later, I went past some people sitting outdoors, and one said basically the same thing, in English: "Now, there's a good looking guy."
First off, I don't see myself as particularly good-looking. And secondly, why was it guys who said that? There, I prefer the Latvian girl who wolf-whistled after me ;-)

Today's talk with the commission deciding who'll actually get the scholarship feels like it didn't go too well.

I never thought I'd say that in any context involving Japanese, but I felt that it, and I, was all too cool and rational. I could have explained some things, like for how long I have wanted to get to Japan, a lot better, I fear.

Then again, things have to - and can only - be as good as they can be "now," at the moment they are happening. Afterwards, it's over. Draw a lesson, but more importantly, remember to go on.
Maybe my feeling is wrong and they'll still pick me. If so, I would be surprised, but pleasantly so. If not, I can't change it.

Honestly, I just don't feel like projecting youthful enthusiasm anymore. I do that naturally when I can give a talk about something that fascinates me, but in a situation like applications, it's become a survival skill to be able to remain cool and have a Plan B (and C, and D, preferably).
Maybe that's not the best thing, but it's not the best world, either.

It's nice in hell...

2008-06-24T10:01:00.003+03:00

… and there was snow there, in the Höllengebirge ("Hell Mountains").
I let my dad drive me to the place where I wanted to start, went over the first (small) mountain, and then up onto the Feuerkogel. The Traunsee-Bergmarathon (mountain marathon) will take the same route down from the Feuerkogel and towards Grasberg and Gmundnerberg (where I had been running the day before).

Rather unexpectedly, it took me only a bit more than three hours to make my way up. Encountered some runners (many more than hikers) on the way, probably some I'll meet again at the Bergmarathon.
Nice, sometimes adventurous, paths up the mountain, through the forest, over rocks, oftentimes having to climb fallen trees or make the way through underbrush that's rather close together.
Doesn't look like a path to run, but that's not the plan for the Bergmarathon, anyways.

Having gotten up so quickly, I decided to go on and hiked to the Grosser Höllkogel ("Big Hell Mountain/Summit," sort of). Another three-and-a-half hours to and back, much of the way across left-over snow fields. Well, it's only mid-June, and this is a high alpine area already…

View Larger Map

Anyways, I'm happy to have made it up there, finally hiking in the mountains, with my trusty old backpack (which I've had for a long time, always use in my travels, and never yet used for real backpacking!).

Today is the third day after that little adventure, and my soreness is passing. Since yesterday, it's been extremely hot and humid here, back in the East of Austria. Seeking to advance with writing that's to be done lest I never publish anything, anymore.
The day after tomorrow, the tests and then the talks that are part of the Monbukagakusho application will be taking place.
I don't usually dream, but with some nervosity about both this application (and I should learn about the application as lecturer for China soon) and the Bergmarathon mounting, I've had some pretty weird dreams. The heat did its part. And last night, some beeping kept on waking me - took me until this morning to realize it was my mobile phone's "low battery"-warning...

Back in Austria, In the Alps

2008-06-21T07:34:00.001+03:00

Last Thursday, went to Altmünster (in Upper Austria, quite close to Salzburg) to our apartment there, with my dad. A change of scenery to something more like what people would think of when thinking of Austria, and a chance to get in some mountain training…

With all that was and is to be done to get organized again and ready for the next escapade, having just come back from Latvia, and not knowing what will be next, there's lots of errands to run.
Just before leaving, I checked the plant pots in the greenhouse, for example, to see which of last year's chile peppers did, after all, survive over-wintering. (Actually, quite a few did, and quite a few for which I would not have expected it.)

Training has been rather less consistent, with days passing in a rush and me not noticing some times when two days pass without any sports (except for re-arranging my book cases or the like, which actually does have some likeness to weight lifting…).

Still, there where some nice runs.

June 14, for example. To the north of Parndorf:

View Larger Map

Time: 03:13:25; 30.39 km; avg. speed 6.4 min/km; avg. HR 154 bpm; TE 4.2
Ascent/descent: 112 / 105 m

Or yesterday, at the Traunsee/Altmünster:

View Larger Map

Time: 02:09:20; 16.93 km (?; I think the leaf cover on forested passages disturbed the GPS-POD quite a bit at times); avg. speed 7.6 min/km; avg. HR 152 bpm; TE 4.5
Ascent/descent: 522 / 514 m. Yep, I'm in the mountains now.

Today, it's 14 days to the Bergmarathon.
And I'm going to hell… the Höllengebirge ("Hell Mountains").

I am so back home...

2008-06-13T22:05:00.000+03:00

Temperatures have gone down, wind is up. I'm definitely back home.

Vienna felt absolutely grand. Not only is it - or certainly seems, not least
as my favorite haunts are spread out a bit - quite a bit bigger than Riga, I
also noticed how much more international it is. Stockholm already was a lot
more international, but Vienna, now more than ever, feels truly
cosmopolitan. I heard more different tongues, both of varieties of German
and of truly other languages here in a few hours, than ever in Latvia.

Being recognized and welcomed back by some many people in Parndorf (which is
40 km from Vienna, but the way many people from here work in Vienna, as I
studied and study in Vienna, to me it's like a suburb), I once again feel
more at home here than I did before.
Already, it had a great side-effect: The local branch of the Raiffeisen-Bank
will be getting my bank account, for they actually have something that is
customer service, whereas the Bank Austria where I had my account for all of
12 years now proved to be totally inflexible, as if I couldn't be trusted to
pay up. Well, fortunately I can still change without having too many set
payments. My luck, and the local bank's.

Currently, I'm watching a TV program (on German station 3Sat, which is quite
like the American PBS) about the Viennese Ringstrasse, the grand street
encircling the inner city, built on the area where the city walls used to
be. As always after being abroad for a while, I notice how many places I
have actually never been (inside the Opera, for example), and how much
history we have here.
Riga got me to realize how much I am used to places having Roman roots (Riga
was only founded after 1200). In the USA, I don't have problems with it
being different, I don't think that it's "all so new, without history" as
some always say - but to have that in Europe...

Well, I'd still love to go abroad again after this summer, finally make it
to East Asia.
Still, if I knew this would be the case, I think I should try to do some
Vienna tourism.
Then again, I also haven't yet managed to make it to Paris, for example...

Back in Austria

2008-06-09T20:27:00.000+03:00

I came back last Friday. Since then, I've been busy trying to get organized. It's pretty strange not knowing whether I'll be in Austria after this summer, or gone yet again.

Crazy how some things can go:

On the flight back, I met one girl who I had not managed to say Goodbye to. Turned out the reason she had been to Vienna before was that she has a boyfriend here. The day before, she had decided to go to Vienna again, on the same flight I was on... Chatting, that was a two-hour flight that seemed more like 15 minutes.

Blogging may be less useful now, since I don't know if anybody's reading, but I do want to continue putting up some things.

It's a little more difficult right now, not just because I seem to be trying to catch up with all the sleep I didn't get in Latvia, but also because my notebook doesn't talk to the modem anymore. My mobile phone, however, decided to let me connect the PC to it, and go online this way... So, I'm back to feeding the blog by way of e-mails, hoping it works.

Austria, actually, is not as much further along (vegetation-wise) as I had expected.

Rather, Latvia's early summer seems more compressed: Lilac and chestnuts were still flowering, and berries already flowering. Here, lilac and chestnuts flowered a longish time ago, but berries are only starting to flower.

I guess it's the difference in length of daylight: Sunrise and sunset times are pretty different, making for quite a bit shorter days here and now. Also, I think I still haven't quite realized that it's only June.

As I had mentioned, I had gone for a last run in Riga on Thursday:

6/5/2008: 01:20:27.9, ~13km, 5.9 min/km, HR avg 151, TE 3.8

Saturday, I found the road running shoes I had left here and went on a usual course to the north of Parndorf (the village/small town where I usually live):

6/7/2008: 00:54:01,3, ~8 km, 6.1 min/km, HR avg 147, TE 3.3

Also went out in the evening, and although it was quite cloudy, rain and thunderstorm clouds moving around, the sun was stinging. It seems stronger, and to be hotter, than it was in Latvia.

Today, another run, mainly through the military training grounds to the Southwest of Parndorf (I got lucky and it was allowed to get onto it today - not that I always mind if it's not allowed, but I do mind when training with live munition is on ;-) :

6/9/2008: 02:02:17,2, ~20 km, 6 min/km, HR avg. 157, TE 4.7

I have never before seen the - forested - training grounds as wet, humid, and muddy, and even with a lot more erosion on the paths than ever before.

(It has been raining a lot. A while ago in Latvia, we said that you just had to wait for a little while if you didn't like the weather, it will change in a few minutes. For the last months, however, I have noticed that the weather in Austria, with many influences coming together and the Alps adding another element of disturbance, is highly changeable. Some of the rain I have already seen since I came back has been very strong - but fortunately almost only occurred during the night.)

Even many of the fields and paths in the open were still muddy. I was trying out the Cooper's Hill shoes again, and they worked well. This time, with the soil high in clay (rather than Latvia's sand) the mud did accumulate, but it also dropped off rather nicely. And those shoes, although not quite made for stability, felt great. (In contrast to the old road running shoes which, after coming back from the run two days ago, I had thrown away immediately because they proved to be awful.)

Tomorrow, trying to run a lot of errands in Vienna.

Will be fun to be around there again. Or so I hope, as there is a lot of trouble (traffic disturbances, tons of people) because of the Euro 2008.

Already, I have to say that - going running, moving around in it - I have come to like the local landscape a lot: Pretty flat, but not totally - at least some places; wide open... I'll put up a picture.

The two last notes that seem necessary:

Around the time of my return, I received the invitation for the language test and talk which are a part of the application process for the Monbukagakusho scholarship I applied for. One more (and final, actually) step before there is a decision about that...
And, the Bergmarathon 2008 is barely a month away.

Let's call it a stay

2008-06-05T19:27:00.000+03:00

Last day.

In the morning, I went to Agenskalna gimnazija one last time, finishing off some duties, getting a nice book on Latvia as a parting present, and saying good-bye to some of the colleagues. Then, went for a little walk and took some last pictures.

In the evening, I almost had myself convinced that I should just go the airport already today and wait there. Then, I called the taxi for tomorrow morning, went for one last run in Riga, and got some pastries for dinner and maybe breakfast.

Now, for finishing off my packing. I'm pretty sure it's going to be in excess of the 20 kg allowance, even having taken out the books and trying to sneak those in as part of my carry-on.

The Finish

2008-06-03T17:31:00.004+03:00

The high note on which I had hoped to finish my stay in Latvia did come through:

Last weekend, I went to Stockholm to participate in the 30th edition of the Stockholm Marathon - in my 30th year - and I did it.
Okay, it did take me very nearly five hours to finish, but I was able to run the whole time, without any cramps or any such problems, even though it was pretty hot. In fact, I still had the stamina to increase my pace on the last kilometers.

Beautiful. Finishing successfully, seeing the city while running, being able to get through it so nicely... the way things are looking, I'll be out for a slow, light run again today.

Next up: the Bergmarathon (mountain marathon) around the Traunsee. Quite something else, actually (a lot of climbing, a certain need for water and energy to be carried along, and definitely no other intent than to see how far I really get on that course).

Last Days

Yesterday, I came back from Stockholm, and my roommate was packing - he left this morning.

Today, I've just cleaned up, started to pack - checking what should come with me, what might not fit, and trying not to think too much about the excess weight it might entail. Also went and closed my local bank account.

Tomorrow, off to get the confirmation of my stay (necessary for the ERASMUS scholarship) and having Spanish (oral) test. (I wonder how I did on the written one - Russian was hardly glorious, but quite all right, especially considering how intensely I had been studying, not! Spanish should be better, but I don't really know.)

Thursday, a last visit to Agenskalna gimnazija for work feedback and confirmation, and early on Friday, I'm on the flight back home.

Now, I'm wondering if I should go to the beach once more; probably going to try and take some more pictures here and there, but otherwise, I'm trying just to relax. I'm almost at the point of wanting to get into a work routine for the summer, anyways. So much I wanted to get on with didn't really progress a lot...

The e-mail server on which my main mail accounts run is down, just now that a fellow ecology student had written and suggested meeting... (dr.gerald.schmidt[at]gmail.com would also work, if you happened to read this - though it's probably too late for a meeting by now) . Computers...

School's Out

2008-05-27T15:35:00.002+03:00

Yes, that's it with my teaching in Latvia - final grades are given, normal lessons are over.

Next weekend: Stockholm.

In 10 days I'll already be back home. It was originally planned that I'd also be in Latvia in June, but as it turned out, that exam time is really summer break already, most exams are earlier (my last will be on June 4 - oral Spanish exam).

Strange as always:
On the one hand, I am more than happy to get back to Austria. On the other hand, I feel as if I had only just come here recently, and could happily return soon. Should the applications for going to East Asia work out, I'll be more than happy to leave Austria again, too.

Still, except for the Bergmarathon (and the things I'm working on, as usual), I don't yet know what I'll be doing this summer, let alone after that - it depends on the lecturer/scholarship applications, first of all...

Getting back there

2008-05-23T08:12:00.002+03:00

My sojourn in Latvia is, slowly but steadily, drawing to a close...

Health and Running

The cold that prevented me from running in the Riga Marathon is still with me, but losing its grip on me ever more. So, I'm getting back into running - and actually, except for its effect, feeling better than I had before the forced time-out. I'd certainly like to be in top shape for Stockholm...

University and "my work"

Yesterday, I had the written Spanish test (oral will be early in June). No idea how it went ;-) Still, shouldn't I get to East Asia, I'll enjoy going on with that.
Russian test will be on Monday, and it will certainly not go all that well... and I don't care quite that much; I want to learn more of the language, but now it just didn't work out well enough.

Considering how things are going in the world - oil hitting $135 a barrel, food becoming ever more expensive - I feel that I really need to get back into and on with my sustainability/positive ecology work. This had recently been in a time-out too, as school in Latvia also winds down, and lots of work have had to be done.

Work - Teaching and Jobs

In that context:
Yesterday I also signed the paper that the school needs to make the end of my teaching there official. Sounds like I could easily go on, but "No, thank you..."

The Latvian phrase used in that amused me a lot, though: atbriivot mani no darba - translating it literally, it would be "free me from that work"... I certainly did not hate the teaching, but I do feel like I'm being set free. At least until it gets essential that I find my next job...

Recently, I saw a sort-of prediction that the present generation will have 10-14 different jobs during their lifetime. It depends on how I count, but I think I'm at job number 5 or 6 already (and that's counting them so as to get a lower number).

Tough luck - Riga's off

2008-05-17T10:37:00.003+03:00

Riga Marathon would be tomorrow.

Except, three days ago my throat started scratching again, since two days ago it's quite a serious cold. So, even though I hate having to do that, I'll leave it be and rather not run (or run, but only for training, not in the marathon).
Before I go crazy and try to run anyway, I'm rather saying that now already. That way, it's off my back, official, out of mind... Reminds me of why I dislike such events. - It makes it necessary that everything is all good at exactly that time, as if you couldn't have a bad day, run into trouble, or some such...

There's still Stockholm, which was a lot more costly and somewhat difficult to organize, so I'll switch my sights to that now.

The end of the week (yes, those same days I started getting sick) was the Students' Research Conference at the Pedagogical and Psychological Faculty:
Presentations of the research done for the course in Academic Writing, and by students from other places (Hungary, Slovakia, Romania, Serbia, Turkey - and I'm forgetting something). Quite nice as an introduction to what scientific conferences are like, very nice socially.
Finally, I could give a presentation again... I still love doing that, and apparently it shows (feedback was typically along the lines of "there's a good presenter" - I'm not totally happy with how it went, of course ;-)

So, I've been getting my credits for several things - those same things credit points for which seemed rather unsure - and will also be getting the second semester of research writing done.

Next up, Spanish test: next week already; Russian, the week after.
This second week from now is also the last week of teaching; and on the weekend, it's over to Stockholm for the marathon there. I seriously hope not to run into trouble with that, but to run in it!!!

Thoughts on Portugal

2008-05-13T22:56:00.003+03:00

After having come back, I must say that Riga has also become very familiar.
There is something somewhat less homely about it, though.

Photos are still to follow; but I am currently in no mood to write. Quite a bit to do, and psyched about the upcoming marathon(s), so I am taking a time-out from blogging until after the Riga Marathon (May 18).

I wrote the following May 8, the second day in Portugal:

May 7: airports, flights, and the same again… Riga to London Stansted to Porto
In 2000, I traveled for a few weeks along the Mediterranean coast from Milano to Granada; this day, I did the same thing in a single day, along the North Sea and Atlantic coasts of Europe.
Somehow, it makes me realize that Europe - not necessarily if you compare it only in area, but certainly if thinking of cultural diversity - is not all that small.

It's interesting what you can already notice from the air:
Lots of forest in Latvia, comparatively few fields; lots of small fields, trees along just about all the roads, many spread-out settlements or single houses among the fields, in England; densely settled areas in/of Portugal, many woods, but also quite a few fields, shaped to follow the many hills.

Porto (and the area as we approached it) looked nice already approaching. I had not realized how much I had missed hilly to mountainous areas, and the way Southern villages and towns meander along them.

The light rail in Oporto proved very nice, too, and the entire city felt rather familiar (including, or in spite of?, the drunk who was at the stop where I had to wait for the train to change to).
I had some idea how to get to the Youth Hostel where I would be staying the night, and there were city maps at all the bus stops, and the information on the web had said that it would be three kilometers from my metro stop. So, I thought that I'd walk.
And I did. Oh boy, did I.
The roads are definitely meandering… It took me a while to really get my bearings, and for a while I thought I would be joining some bum in a doorway. In the end, I did find the hostel (and still in time to check in), had a quick shower, and dropped into bed. And still, I thought that what I saw of the city was very nice, walking along the Rio Douro in particular.

May 8

The next morning, I decided to walk again. Along the Rio Douro, then the road along the Atlantic coast. I just had to walk down to the water, too - I think I had never before been on the coast of the Atlantic at the edge of Europe. A very different beach from the Baltic sea: many more pebbles in the sand, many rock outcroppings, tidal pools, sea life on the rocks. Plus, it was quite windy, with waves breaking, and the salty sea air in the face. This smell of it alone, and especially, is very different from the Baltic Sea; and another thing I had not noticed I might be missing - but actually it felt that way. Then, through the Parque de Cidade (city park) all along the road leading back to Casa de Musica and the metro. I was exhausted enough by then that I decided to immediately go to the train station and to Aveiro.

In Aveiro, a similar situation: Looking to find the hotel, I got a little sidetracked and ended up seeing a lot of the city (in this case, especially of the university campus) - a lot more, still carrying my "doctor's bag"-style suitcase, than I wanted to walk today.
Of course, after finding it, dropping off my bag, checking out my room (having a shower again), I went out again and went at least as far as I had walked when I was looking for the hotel. At least this time, I found the way back easily ;-)

Portugal is somehow strange. Or rather, what's strange is how familiar much of it is. Admittedly, more familiar and more comfortable than Latvia. Being able to use the Euro again, by itself, is a nice touch. The language issue continues to confound me, though. On the one hand, it is very familiar - especially in writing, much of it is or seems understandable. The spoken language, however, is very different from Italian or Spanish.
Anyways, I'd almost think that I shouldn't have gone to Latvia - except that I don't do regrets like that, and I'm too aware of the problems that also, always, appear. Going to Spain or Portugal if I do the second year with Campus Europae does seem like a very good idea again, though.

Two nights in a single, nicely quiet, room in a hotel now… I'll have to see if I get up early and go out running here, or if I need to set an alarm to make sure I get up before noon...

[As it turned out, it was something between those two: I had walked so much, my legs hurt anyways; I still didn't sleep longer than 7 or 8 - which I consider rather long, actually (although I was usually up until 11 or 12, since we had late dinners and continued to talk in the group).]

Back from Portugal

2008-05-11T22:36:00.003+03:00

Just a quick note: I was in Portugal the last few days for a Campus Europae (PR) meeting; I think it was productive, all the walking I did was rather exhausting (for miles, and much of it with my pack in my hand), the food was great, the country is very interesting, bla bla, and so on, and so forth...

A real blog post about it, and an upload of pictures from there, will follow soon(-ish).

Latvia's Independence Day

2008-05-06T21:52:00.003+03:00

May 4 was "Latvijas Republikas Neatkarības deklarācijas pasludināšanas diena."
On May 4, 1990, Latvia was declared an independent republic. Again, actually.

It was a holiday, with the accompanying celebrations. A bit of choral music at the Freedom Monument is what I had gone out to experience - not quite my thing, but there is some nice singing. Watching people is great, too: Some were joking about that republic and anthem and the whole issue, some were probably just out for the walk, quite a few looked like they would gladly take the music as reason to dance, a few sang along with the choir.

I don't usually care much about national celebrations, but this did get me thinking:
My pupils at school have only lived in this independent republic, but had I been born a Latvian, I would have spent my childhood and school years in one of the USSR's republics...

Moreover, I have some memory of how it was when the Eastern bloc collapsed, we suddenly got many Eastern Europeans (with pretty bad cars, most noticeably) on our streets - I grew up only a few kilometers from the Iron Curtain, so all that was close.
Yet, I still had some of the Iron Curtain/Eastern Bloc-mentality in myself (of how they would have to be backwards, still struggling, whatever...). That was around the same time that Latvia declared itself independent.

For breaking through this alone, as I had intended, coming to Latvia was a good thing.

Today, I was back at school; now, I need to finish packing.
Leaving for Portugal - Campus Europae PR task force meeting - tomorrow.

I can't say how it will go with blogging, I'll only be taking my old subnotebook which does not have WiFi and don't know if I'll (want to) have much time which to spend with the internet. Going cold turkey for at least a few days may do me good, actually...

Training Update

2008-05-04T14:18:00.002+03:00

In two weeks, the Riga Marathon is on...

4/29: On sick leave from school because of my sore throat, just went out for a walk to take some pictures and get some fresh air while not having to talk... and to record it so I could have it in the training analysis and see what it does:
Well, I suppose it was some 8 km (didn't measure the indoors parts), two hours, an average HR 0f 98, and a training effect of 1.3.
(I think I recently measured my HR while working on the PC and lying in bed and it got a similar training effect ;-)

5/1/2008: Parkour Jam session
I did not do too much - or so it seemed in comparison - but some muscles were pretty sore the next day(s). Parkour does that to you... it's much less like running, more like strength training, plus climbing, crawling, jumping.
Time recorded: 2:24.37,9 - then the memory was full because I had not deleted recent data.
HR avg: 122 - values between 44 (that's because the belt often lost signal) and 204 (that's when I was really doing something).
Training Effect: 2.3 - "maintaining"

5/2/2008: 01:01.02,5 - 9.62 km - 6'21 min/km - HR avg. 153 - TE 3.2

5/4/2008: 01:55.15,9 - 18.81 km - 6'08 min/km - HR avg. 162 - TE 4.1

Beach Panorama

2008-05-03T17:42:00.003+03:00

Come, stand on the beach with me...

(but careful, please: the image is 1.3 MB big!)

(Click on the image above to view the full-size version)

View Larger Map

May 1

2008-05-02T07:25:00.003+03:00

Still going to bed late, when I'm already very tired, but getting up around five in the morning. 8am may have been the latest I got up so far this year, usually it's with sunrise and early morning birds. I am sure I should work on going to bed earlier, but there's just so much to be done. Getting up that early, I like that all too much, and usually I am up by then even when I do not set an alarm. Whatever....

Yesterday, May 1, I went out with a number of Latvian traceurs (and similar people, it seems). Went to Mangalsala, at the estuary of the Daugava. For one, to some rather destroyed military fortifications, and secondly to the beach. Practicing flips, let alone on sand, seems a great idea, but isn't quite my thing (with contact lenses? - the day before, it was very windy after warm and dry days, dust was blowing everywhere... fortunately, I only did some quick shopping and came back, but even so it was not good for my eyes.)
Took some photographs to stitch together into panorama views of the Daugava where it meets the Baltic sea, and of the sea's beach close-by. Will be online soon, I hope.

Wandering the sand beach barefooted, running a little on the beach and the dunes at its inland edge was extremely beautiful.
I got some more photographs for my series of sports self-portraits, and I think they turned out very nicely. This "Move Free"-series is starting to really become a series, and I am pretty happy with how it is progressing...
It's one of those things, aside of the academic work that needs doing, that I love doing (like sports, also) because it gives you a more immediate feedback on your action; writing seemingly takes forever, getting stuff to a publisher or into a journal takes its time again... it is psychologically more exhausting than a marathon is physically.
Or so I think, and I'll see soon enough.

B1 level

2008-04-30T07:18:00.003+03:00

Catching up, publishing this on 5/2/2008

Well, after a flurry of e-mails, my Campus Europae coordinator and I found that the Latvian language course I had taken last semester actually does include (or at least reach into) B1/intermediate language level.
So, that's all right already. And how easy it eventually turned out, too ;)

The pharyngitis (sore throat) has been getting better and better, fortunately. I went out just for some errands, and to see if I can finally get some photography for a(nother) little project of mine done.

Oh great...

2008-04-28T20:12:00.002+03:00

Since two days ago, swallowing is painful.
At least I can still sleep okay, and there is no other problem. Although, that's actually something that concerns me, since it also means that I can't say I simply had a cold: I simply have a sore throat, and very badly so, and no idea why and wherefore.

In fact, it's so bad that I asked for sick leave from school. So, I'm taking the next two days off (and then there are holidays, and then I'm gone to Portugal).
Depending on how you see it, it's the perfect or a pretty bad time for that. I actually don't much like it; it's a bit too much like extending the holidays.
I just hope I'll get better, or I will have to go see a doctor. Before Portugal, let alone the Riga Marathon, I sure would like to be all right again!

I also checked in with the Campus Europae coordinator at my home university... and he dropped a bombshell on me, asking whether I had taken any courses in Latvian or could certify that I had reached B1 level of language ability in Latvian.

A little late to tell me that, not least as the requirements were not like that when I started for this sojourn (and I read fine points like that only too carefully).

Not that I hadn't been looking for interesting courses in Latvian, but even with the little that I feel I'm doing this semester, I am doing too much. Even so, I still don't know whether I'll get enough credits for CE at all... certainly not if I can't finally manage to study and do my writing for this semester's courses! Gorram, why do I like Russian so much that I pick up much just so - and then and therefore don't really study!

Training this week:

2008-04-27T17:39:00.000+03:00

04/23/2008 - 01:19.39,0 - 13.06 km - 6'06 min/km - 159 HR avg. - TE 4.5
A bit too quick, at least HR-wise, but nice. Shin not a problem anymore; quite cold wind, also not a problem (I'm used to more). Not sure if the distance is correct - even more so than usually: About two-thirds into the run, the FootPOD's battery gave out (it had flashed the low-level warning before, but then stopped doing that…)

04/25/2008 - 01:07.42,0 - 11.39 km - 5'57 min/km - 158 HR avg. - TE 4.5
Thepretty high training effect seems to become a constant companion; I don't much like it. Seem to be developing a slightly sore throat (maybe the cold of the Italian girl I spoke to was a bit too effective in spreading?!).

04/27/2008 - 01:16.53,0 - 11.76 km - 6'32 min/km - 162 HR avg. - TE 5
Okay, I overdid it. Vienna City Marathon is today, so I felt an obligation to go running even though my sore throat has gotten quite a bit worse. At least, that's the only obvious problem (nothing with shins or knees), but swallowing currently hurts. And judging by HR and TE, I am not at the best of my health…
Had I been in Vienna, once again I would not have participated in the marathon there, after all.
Riga Marathon is in three weeks; I hope I'll be up to speed again, by then.

Spring, and it's like a new world

2008-04-27T17:37:00.001+03:00

During the few days my parents were here, the day (time of sunlighy) got longer by some 15 minutes. We are back to a situation where the time when I'm coming back from my late lectures still feels like it's evening, and is bright like that. In fact, however, it's 9 p.m. - basically, early night.
It's a bit confusing, since I rather like to use the sun as my guide to sleeping, but it is also very nice.

Also, you can watch the whole scenery getting greener and greener. Bushes have been unfurling their leaves or starting to bloom, trees are not far behind. (In fact, I started writing this about a week ago, and by today most smaller trees are pretty green, and the big ones starting to follow.)
Temperatures have recently been very nice, too - the night temperatures are still quite cold, but during the day, t-shirts have become appropriate.

It's only a little over a month before my return back to Austria. Before that, there are a few free days at the beginning of May, then I'm in Portugal for the Campus Europae PR meeting, then there's the LU Students' Research Conference, immediately followed by the Riga Marathon, then the last two weeks of May (when I'll need to take my tests for this semester's lectures), Stockholm Marathon, and that's pretty much it.

Still, some things about the lectures I've been taking by writing the necessary paper are not totally clear, neither do I know when I'll be able to take the test for Spanish (the lectures with the responsible teacher had recently not taken place, and the next times I'll miss again!). And of course, I still need to finally study more (or anything except what I learn in lectures) for Russian…

Yesterday, I sent off the materials for the Monbukagakusho scholarship application. Let's see if anything becomes of that.

Today, I updated my website a little: Introduced "aoi," and I hope that I will get a German translation of its basic elements finished soon.

... and they are gone

2008-04-22T06:12:00.002+03:00

Yesterday, my parents left town again.
In the evening, we checked in via skype...

They were pretty happy about this visit, and amazed at how Western this part of Eastern Europe had become, contrary to imagination. - Things I had been saying, one for the Iron Curtain which we still have in our heads, and the other regarding how the Baltic was strongly Soviet-controlled, but always oriented more towards Northern Europe rather than Russia.

Well, we visited quite a few places.

Not least, the visit to a kindergarten with my mother worked out. Indeed, it worked out very well, with Mrs. Lapina from Agenskalna gimnazija using a break in her teaching to serve as our guide and translator (and I did understand some of what was talked about and even conversed a bit in Latvian ;) . She's a real treasure!
It was very interesting: A rather different kind of organization and somewhat different intention. The case in point: Children going on to elementary school are expected to be able to read. Otherwise, they wouldn't be able to understand their tasks, after all.
(In Austria, a child is expected to read freely in the 3rd. grade of elementary school, not necessarily before then. A child able to read when coming out of kindergarten is seen as probably being pushed too much by its parents.)

All right, we came around much more - with my dad to the Olympic Sports Center, I want to mention - but I won't go into detail. It was pretty touristy, in our very own ways, though. In other words, quite a break from how I'd recently been living here.

Yesterday, it was back to Austria for the parents, and back to teaching for me. And it's getting quite crazy: So many things coming up that there aren't all that many lectures left to the semester. But now, I need to get ready for going to school again...

Recent (Non-)Training

2008-04-22T06:05:00.002+03:00

Having talked about being efficient at running, my calf muscle had started hurting a bit more recently. So, during the time my parents were visiting, I took some time off.
Time off from running per se, anyways - we walked for miles every day, after all.

Yesterday...
04/21/2008 - 01:03.52,3 - 10.21 km - 6'15 min/km - 150 HR avg. - TE 3.5
... I went running again and it seems that there is something amiss, but not much at all. So, I hope it's just a slight strain from running a lot and on variable surfaces, but not a real shin splints-type problem (taking weeks off would take me past the marathons, but of course I also wouldn't go running if I were hurt).

Countdown, and the Situation

2008-04-17T21:49:00.000+03:00

30 Days to the Riga Marathon!

Just now, ads are appearing for it at the tourist info - or at least, it's only now that I came there, since my parents got tourist tickets for public transport and info material there.

Checking, I found the organizers are - on the Latvian site version, anyways - celebrating that there are already 1100 participants...
Stockholm Marathon had over 18000 in January or February and they had to close registrations then.
Which is not to say that it were bad. The two marathons will be very different, though.

School visit with my parents today: Pretty nice, seeing where I've been teaching, what some of the students and teachers are like... the principal is just too sweet. And later, Ms. Lapina - one of the teacher colleagues who I had asked about chances for my mum to visit a kindergarten (she works in such in Vienna, after all) - also came through with having organized such a visit for tomorrow, and she was asked to join as translator and will do so...
Anybody who wants to talk about Latvians being cold and unfriendly or anything like that, come to me and get what's coming. Sure there are problems.

Yesterday, the first day, we also found a drunk who was lying on the walkway with a slight gash to this head. Nobody seemed interested.
My dad observed a German lecture, and immediately stated that the students were not very good, but extremely cheeky.
We went back to the old town in bus, and a teen immediately stood up to let Aunt Ria take a seat.
Today, after having visited the Ethnographic Museum (which was a nice walk, but the buildings were closed and it was pretty chilly), we saw a pretty bad crash on the motorway.
In short: life is life. There's both good and bad everywhere.

Meet the parents

2008-04-17T07:25:00.003+03:00

So, yes.
After the run, I went to the airport.
On the way there, met a student again who's studying Chinese - she just came from Jurmala where a school would like to offer some Chinese classes. Sweeet.

First time I was the one waiting at the airport for my parents, and Aunt Ria, to arrive. Some complications with how to find food, where to go, but all in all a very nice afternoon we spent chatting and looking around the city.
My dad is continually amazed at the cars: You hardly see any which are poor. In fact, you see many more which are more expensive or newer than you see in Austria...

Weather was incredibly nice, and that alone helps a lot, of course.
Today, it's off to "my" school for a visit there (and because one of my classes gets their test from me), and then we'll see where to. Weather may not be as nice, but may be just as good - the forecast is not good, but its high is already broken at this early hour.

My participation in the students' research conference in May (necessary for finishing one important course) is finally set; and I finished most of the work on the application material for Japan... though still not all I already wanted to have finished.

04/16 run

2008-04-16T22:22:00.002+03:00

A quick run in the morning to have done some training even this day - afterwards, I was off to the airport to pick up my parents...

01:02.22,9 - 10.44 km - 5'59 min/km - 156 HR avg. TE 4.2
Not quite as high a training effect as with the runs below, although speed and average heart rate were similarly high. And still, a TE which should be lower - then again, I'll not be doing quite as much now, so it should be quite all right.

Taking a break...

2008-04-16T06:24:00.002+03:00

... from some of my burdens. Sort of.

The rest of the week is, except for a few small and one larger thing, all set. Well, actually pretty important things having taken me a while already... Still, I feel like it's a break.

No wonder: Only a few more hours, and my parents and Tante Ria (she's not technically an aunt - Tante, but always had that appellation for me) are arriving in Riga for a visit.

Looking forward to showing them the city, seeing the city as a bit of a tourist again myself, and especially to talks we'll be having.

Finally, although my life is still a whirlpool, there are also several approaches I'm following to get on with things, so I'm more confident than I've been in a while. And in fact, the ache in my stomach I used to have seems to have all but disappeared some time during this time in Riga...

4/14 run

2008-04-15T06:19:00.002+03:00

00:55.22,9 - 9.32 km - 5'57 min/km - 156 HR avg. - TE 4.4
Just a quick nice run, but seems like it was quite hard (after-effects of the day before?)

Still a major problem of mine - though I'm not sure I'd necessarily call it a problem: I'm just going rather too fast on those short runs. Then again, their quality counts, and it's probably better this way. As long as rest days follow, at least.

TNF Cooper's Hill

2008-04-13T19:25:00.002+03:00

that is: The North Face's "Cooper's Hill" trail running shoes

I'll admit that a shoe with a color called Habanero Orange immediately holds some attraction for me.

(http://www.chilicult.com/ is my other website… there's a reason for it. It's still only in German, though!).

Moreover, a shoe made for racing in mud and the like… everybody can do sunshine, I like my running in the storm.

Now, as you can see from my prior post today, the weather was just right for that.

Results:

You should be rather biomechanically efficient if you ever get onto asphalt. Cushioning is not that shoe's thing. - But then, that's exactly what it's not made for. If you can choose between a swampy ditch beside the road, and the hardtop of the road, the decision is easy ;)

On slick grass, up, down and traversing inclines, on trails, in mud, the shoes grip is perfect. The wet sand seemed a problem, but that was only when the entire ground gave way, and even then the shoes bite.

Slick rocks seem a bit more troublesome, but as soon as there is a little roughness - no pro', bro'.

One mystery to me is why the Cooper's Hill didn't get a waterproof liner.
They are nicely airy, so they may be great for mountain running (I intend to - probably - use them for the Bergmarathon). With enough water around, your feet will get wet, though.
My assumption is that the designers didn't go for a Gore-Tex liner because the way these are supposed to be used, you'd get water in from the top, anyways. That way, the better breathability may be more of an advantage.

Interestingly, the shoes didn't get nearly as noticeably muddy as I feared they would. Strange statement, I know, but I wouldn't want to have to wash them every time (and with that color, noticeable comes easy).

Their light weight, tread, and general profile really makes the Cooper's Hill be built for racing. I was quite amazed how nimble and fast they move.

All in all, thus, a highly specialized shoe. Not recommendable for all-purpose use, but highly advisable to get it if you want to use it for what it's made for: running on mud, slick trails, wet grass... For that, it's fast, and it truly grips beautifully.

In this time of cheap stuff for everything, mobile phones that take pictures and navigation devices that make phone calls, I actually appreciate finding something that's well made to serve a specific purpose. I'm still going to try them for parkour, I think…

Two notes to wrap this up:

I got my pair from http://www.runningwarehouse.com/. Good service, good advice, which brings me to Point 2:

these shoes are cut large, going half-size smaller than with normal running shoes really is advisable.

And a P.S.:
This is another one of those cases where an excellent product is really hard to get. The orange model cannot be found in Europe even through special orders, and The North Face's products "cannot" be shipped from the USA to Europe by most companies - TNF says you should go to your local dealer. And there you won't get what you want. What kind of sales policy is that, exactly?

Disclaimer:
I don't get any money from TNF or any stores, and I'm not affiliated with them except as a customer. I may be open to sponsoring, but I'll certainly keep on saying it how I think it is.

playing in the mud

2008-04-13T19:22:00.002+03:00

Another one of those times where I started with the decision not to go running. After all, it was raining quite heavily, and I had my running in a downpour already, earlier this week.
Then again, I had not done training yesterday.

So, I re-interpreted things slightly:
Rain, wet ground? Well, I had checked out the trails on Zakusala ("rabbit island," which the TV tower is on), and where I pretty much started my longish running in Riga. Those trails look a lot like the ones I always run on in Austria, and a lot like real trails.
Not to forget that, with the TNF Cooper's Hill shoes, I have a new pair of shoes which is explicitly made for running on muddy tracks.

So, I decided to play in the rain. ...

04/13/2008 - 01:15.10,0 - 11.89 km - 6'19 min/km - 157 HR avg. - TE 4.5
(Rather like speedwork plus breaks - running plus stops for photography. Without those, the average pace was around 5'30 min/km.)

Well, actually there was not all that much mud, and the rain stopped about five minutes before I set out. Still, there was slick grass, puddles, wet sand, gravelly trails, ups and downs… It was beautiful.

I just wish my academic work could be as immediately gratifying. Things there take longer to develop and mature, let alone to produce tangible results.

blogging reviews

2008-04-13T19:16:00.003+03:00

Hmm. I don't want to let the label list get too long. At the same time, I think it is time to introduce a few new ones, and - more importantly - to write more blog posts of a shorter size, with more of a focus on one or a few strongly related issues. Not everything all in one.
I wanted to try writing the posts like that before, but then I don't find time or motivation to write, and therefore I don't do so, but catch up in long posts…

"review"

One new label to introduce. I love shiny new toys, but I love it even more when I can resist temptation. - It's at the root of too much of our stupid overconsumption, and the environmental and social problems that is causing. So, quality and durability are the major criteria for me.

I take Oscar Wilde as, both good and bad, example.

The bad: "I can resist everything except temptation." Not my thing. In fact, something I fight against.
The good: "I have but the simplest taste, the best is good enough." That's something I rather subscribe to, except that the best is not always the most expensive.

It doesn't even have to be the very best quality, but the best balance of factors. I'm sure there's better quality (on some counts) than Levi's Jeans. However, my 501s have now held up (more or less - they are starting to fall apart) for years. My The North Face Mountain Light Jacket is definitely 14 years old - I bought it when I was in the USA for my high school year abroad - I still wear it, and it still serves its purpose.

P.S.: Well, I just entered the label, and a "review" label is already here, I just didn't yet use it too much. Sort-of bad for following the good intention (of putting up reviews), great as proof that I'm not buying all that much stuff.

rest my case

2008-04-12T16:31:00.000+03:00

"I think consumerism is probably a bit of an addiction," offers Richard
Eckersley, an Australian public health researcher featured in a 2003 radio
documentary, Consumerism, Money, and Happiness:

'Addiction is really a hallmark of our era, and I think it
reflects that we don't have culturally promoted kinds of other deeper forms of
meaning and purpose in our lives. So we make up for it by consuming more. ... '

… Most professionals will agree that the purpose or function of an
addiction is to put a buffer between ourselves and the experience or awareness
of our emotions. An addiction serves to numb us so that we are out of touch with
what we know and what we feel. Eventually this numb buffer zone becomes a
habituated coping mechanism."

source <http://www.alternet.org/healthwellness/82013/>

Partying harder and drinking more…. guess I am not alone in my interpretation (at the end of my last post). Seeing it in too extreme a way, however, one forgets that humans are social animals.

So, the collective social support for something like this does not necessarily mean it's not a problem - possibly even a pathology - but since it is (also) based on positive needs, the question may be a bit deeper: To what extent is it not an escape/addiction, when does it get too much and a negative thing?

Ever since I was a child, I asked myself what the meaning of it all was, and I could never shake the feeling that this question were the important one. At the same time, I saw how many people do anything to avoid having to ask themselves that.

Thinking of something my pupils just commented, it seems to have become even more strange either to ask yourself what the purpose of (your) life should be, or even to have found a way to give it meaning and follow that whole-heartedly.
If it were your aim to make loads of money and get lots of sex - or if that is unlikely, get by well enough to get wasted on the weekends - they could understand, but anything out of the ordinary seems to boggle their minds…

There are quite a few things that come to my mind when I think about this observation, not least about the probable effects it has on these teenagers' motivation for learning.

4/11 run

2008-04-12T05:27:00.000+03:00

01:45.10,0 - 17.22 km - 6'06 min/km - 151 HR avg. - TE 3.9
Started out expecting cold - it had been rather cool - ended up running in very nice weather, sunshine.

in a rush

2008-04-11T08:34:00.003+03:00

Wow. Finding a little time to write again, so it's time for an update.

Campus Europae

First of all: I've been invited to participate in the meeting of Campus Europae's PR committee.

I just checked the hits one gets when googling it, and found that blog posts of mine already came up on the third page, a link to the company whose software is apparently used is on the first page... Looks like a lot needed to be done.

It's a strange issue.
On the one hand, this program is excellent.
Not that there were no problems with universities and bureaucracy - I still don't know how many ECTS I'll eventually manage to get, let alone how much will really, usefully count towards my present studies. The international experience in an expanded Europe, however, could be worth more than the degree itself. Well, almost.
On the other hand, if you just want to quickly finish your normal degree - especially now that study programs everywhere are (being) changed to the bachelor as first degree, and therefore (should) take less time - going abroad is not the best idea for that...

How much and how long I'll be able to contribute is a question, too. Not least since I am, and things are, going ahead with the applications for China and Japan, some of which would lead me out of teacher training studies, and therefore away from (Campus) Europ(a)e.

Time accelerates

Less than a week until my parents (and so-called aunt) are coming for a visit. Looking forward to seeing them in person again, showing them some of Riga, chatting, discussing plans...
They'll also be taking some of my stuff back: books, winter clothes. At least, although it's far from the +20 Celsius in Austria, it has started to look like the winter stuff really won't be needed anymore. I'm not so sure which books to keep with me and which to send home, though.

What's more on my mind, though:
I'll be allowed to take some time off from teaching for my parents' visit.
At the beginning of May, I'll take time off for the Campus Europae meeting.
Which, as I forgot to mention above, will be in Portugal!
Mid-May, there is a students' conference which is part of a course (actually, the one which the quarrel with LU was about...), and I need to take some time off. And that's followed immediately by the Riga Marathon, the monday after which I'll rather not go to school, either.

So, in the end, it looks as if I should start counting the exact number of lessons my pupils and I will still be having until school ends with the end of May. And, thus, it seems like the end of my stay here - in June - will approach in a blur. Not too many tests I'll be taking, but still some - and if I don't, finally, start to sit down and really study for the language courses, it won't go nearly as well as it could and should.
Still, that's life!

Oh yes, and today - if I'm not totally mistaken - it's 50 days to Stockholm Marathon!
Also rushing towards me...

Last training session:
04/08/2008 - 01:41.24,9 - 17.2 km - 5'54 min/km - 157 HR avg. - TE 4.6
Haven't been doing too much, sports-wise, recently. So, and because I simply wanted to, I let myself run freely, not trying to keep within a certain HR or pace range. Actually, it was a nice change...

... and on

Now, one more class to teach today, and then let's see what I'll make of this evening.

I asked one girl I rather like (that may be an understatement, but I am rather reserved - except when I'm not) if she had plans for the weekend. I had started thinking that not asking may be the one thing I might later regret...
Well, she does have plans, and it may be better this way (there is a reason I didn't ask her a long time ago). I've been saying that I have "sus.y" as a lover - which is how I often abbreviate sustainability... and "she" seems to be a possessive one, too.

Still, better a life goal than just drifting along distractedly. I have also, always, thought that most people party hard not out of enjoyment, but to let the simple sensual experience make them forget that they don't really know what they are here for. An extreme view? Yes, of course.

I won't go torture others with that opinion, however. It's how I see it, and acting accordingly is the right thing for me. Doesn't have to be so for you. I do wonder, though, why drinking and partying is, all in all, so easily supported whereas deep thinking is seen as strange. Stupid world.

Training Update 04/06/2008

2008-04-06T05:26:00.002+03:00

04/03/2008 - 01:00.01,0 - 10.06 km - 5'58 min/km - 152 avg. HR - TE 3.8
04/04/2008 - 01:24.47,9 - 14.15 km - 6'00 min/km - 150 avg. HR - TE 3.5
04/05/2008 - 01:18.49,9 - 12.81 km - 6'09 min/km - 148 avg. HR - TE 3.5

Seasons of Running

First of all, something I'd been wanting to say for a while:
Outdoors - in my opinion: real - running brings back to experiencing the cycle of the seasons in a way that, otherwise, only gardening can in this age of virtual, passive adventures.

Last Sunday, I ran the same track as the Sunday before, for the largest part.
However, just those two weeks ago, it was a run in snowstorms, with just a bit of sunshine here and there, employing the winter clothing.
The later Sunday, one week ago, I hardly recognized the streets as the same because all the run was in sun and warm temperatures, with the light clothing.

Two days ago, I think I may have caused a light accident.
At least, as I was running on the walkway along the side of a busy street, a car braked a little too slow and bumped into the truck in front of it. I had been getting so many stares, with the all-black, tight clothing, sports glasses, ... I wouldn't be surprised if the driver had been staring at me.
Certainly, I got a girl honking the horn (or letting the driver do so - it was a taxi and she was on the second seat) and waving at me ;-)

Lately, I have been feeling as if I didn't quite know whether the running was fun or a chore.
Certainly, my lazy side is telling me that I needed to do too many other things to go out running, and that maybe I should just stay in. Once I go out, however, it's nice to be moving.
I still am unsure whether it's fun or work, but I sure do enjoy it. Yesterday, for example, I just wanted to go for a short run, and I feel that's all it was - but it still was more than one hour.
It's definitely come to the point that it's a part of my life.

Honestly, I think I do need to check for periodization - I may need to take it slower for a little while. Mainly, however, I think it's just that the marathons are drawing closer. It's less than 50 days to Riga Marathon, already (I missed mentioning that mark before), so these trials of mine are looming larger.

The end is near (update)...

2008-04-03T06:54:00.002+03:00

Right after my last post, got an email and we decided to chalk the problems with my courses at the Pedagogical Faculty up to communication problems. Sounds like it should all work out, after all. (I always expect the worst - at least as a psychological defense mechanism - but I am actually pretty optimistic a person.)

These last days, I also noticed that the end of this stay in Latvia is getting closer in another way:

I've been "seeing" the city through the perspective of what I'll probably feel about having been - not just touristically, but living and working - here once I've been away for a while.

It's a very strange mixture, because I feel somewhat at home, and at the same time that it's not quite my scene. Which may simply imply that a professor of mine, who said that those who study cultural anthropology are typically those who are not quite at home in their native countries, was right.
On the other hand, going away is typically - and it's been so now - to come to value your home country and see it rather more favorably.
Anyways, whereever I should come to be, there will be both good and bad sides to it, and it will be good for the experience I seek to gain.

The end is near...

2008-04-02T22:05:00.002+03:00

... after all, the second half of the second semester has started.
June would only be for "individual work" and tests (and most tests are scheduled for May, actually).

I finally managed to finish and hand in the work which was to be done for my two to three (maybe four) courses at the Pedagogical Faculty, only to be told that I could only get fewer credits for this semester's course, since I don't participate in the classes.
Now, I'm waiting to hear that my writing did not follow the conventions and was therefore not acceptable, and that my lesson plans (required for "Teaching Practice") were also not as they are supposed to be. Of course, it was all done as we had decided by e-mail - or so I would have thought, but it seems not to be so.
So, I'm picking a fight... and don't really want to have too much to do with this department and that work anymore.

Well, not quite right because the writing is part of my work on parkour, and I want to get that finished to the point of being a manuscript, and to get that published - now even more so. Yet alone, to get back to writing on my work beyond that.

If only I could find a breakthrough into the world of academia. Finally.Certainly, I won't if I can't get writing done for which I have at least some data.

On the upside, I was just informed that my application for a lectureship in China will be sent to the universities there for their decision, and the call for applications for the scholarship for studying in Japan (Monbukagakusho) is now open. One further step, and another possibility to go for.

Since yesterday, I'm living with a roommate again, and it looks like it will work out alright. Sure, less quiet, rather less sleep, but not so different from before - and lower rent to pay.

Let's see if I can take the next steps in the next few months, here in Latvia and back in Austria.

Latest training:
03/30/2008 - 02:17.56,9 - 22.95 km - 6'01 min/km - 151 HR avg. - TE 3.5
04/01/2008 - 00:57.10,0 - 10.01 km - 5'43 min/km - 153 Hr avg. - TE 3.8

Funky Week

2008-03-28T22:03:00.002+02:00

Yesterday, the forecast for this weekend (up to +11C) still sounded rather like a bad joke.

Today, it seems like the return of winter was only just a farewell, to remind us of what it was like and would have been supposed to be like, and how nice it is to see the snow disappearing quickly.

For today's run, I could finally make do with just my Insulator tights and top, and a Buff as headwear. No gloves, no Windstopper shirt.

I'm not sure if it's because I'm without my garden this year, or because I am an ecologist, after all, but I've been noticing the first (willow's) flowers, how tree buds have been getting bigger, all those signs of spring, pretty intensely.

Recently, I got spare parts for the Boa lacing of my older shoes using that system. With the hiking shoes, it was surprisingly simple to install; the running shoes required some "surgery" (cutting, sewing, gluing…) to replace the laces.

I went running with those older shoes again. There were no problems, so I guess it worked out all right. It's rather uplifting; I would have hated having to throw away those shoes while they are still good enough, even if I already have new ones.

3/27/2008 - 01:01.47,0 - 9.94 km - 6'13 min/km - 157 HR avg. - TE 4.1,
sloughing through lots of snow
3/28/2008 - 00:58.58,9 - 9.77 km - 6'02 min/km - 150 HR avg. - TE 3.4
comparatively little snow left, very nice conditions

Work-wise, I finally put up (and have, therefore) the first results of the survey (via questionnaire) of traceurs I did, and I also put up a figure with results of the discourse analysis into media reporting and traceurs' definitions of parkour and freerunning.

Seasons? What seasons?

2008-03-26T12:27:00.002+02:00

At least it's like that over much of Europe. (Sometimes, the weather news I hear on Austrian radio - via web stream - fit the conditions here exactly.)

Still, February was not at all like it's supposed to be, recently it seemed to be getting spring, and now this...

Anyways, I'm sitting in my room, wondering if I should continue paying for the whole room or take in a roommate, and working on the analysis of the parkour survey I had made, the writing related to it, and quite a bit more. As always.

At least I wented to Spanish class again yesterday, and intend to go to classes today and tomorrow, too. Hardly anything that should be worth telling... but I still have no idea how things will go on, only my own Plans A through whatever.

Yesterday's run:

03/25/2008 - 00:57.47,0 - 9.69 km - 5'58 min/km - 155 HR avg. - TE 3.9

Pretty beat up psychologically, with too much running through my head, and therefore going hard...

Well, another mark: 100 Days to the Bergmarathon!

Runs-in-the-Snow

2008-03-23T21:47:00.003+02:00

View It in/as Google Map(s)

Still not sure about the FootPOD on the new shoes, but it says 30 km, Google Maps says the track drawn in is 29. So, it sounds rather trustworthy to me.
Once I've been out more, it gets better since I'm more interested in being able to compare my training on different days than in getting exact numbers.

In a similar - "how do I use Training Effect, EPOC, HR best?"-way - I keep on getting the EPOC peak during the first about 45 min, when I'm still going rather faster than is good. Hence, my short runs wind up having the same training effect, according to Suunto Training Manager, than such long ones. Which shows again, that you still have to think yourself while using the data you get as guideline. - Which is actually how I hope that it stays, for I don't want a computer program telling me how it thinks I should design my training (even if the way I am doing it does not conform to standard advice).

Well, with today's run I have broken through the 3-hour (and the 30 km) mark:
03/23/2008 - 03:03.01,0 - 30.57 km - 5'59 min/km - 152 HR avg. - TE 3.4

Certainly something I don't want to do every Sunday (yet ;-)
Nice to see that it has become possible with relatively few problems (some itching and kvetching here and there), and in conditions which were rather interesting... I got some rays of sun, but mainly it was like running in a blizzard (though the wind wasn’t too strong, at least not compared to what I'm used to from back home).

In the morning (when it was still sunny and didn't have snow), I hadn't felt like going out because of all the work that still needs to get done.

I got some more of my work to advance a little, too - especially the analysis of basic data from my survey of traceurs (people who practice parkour).

I had felt that I was once again (well: still) eating rather too much, especially of nuts and chocolate and such things, probably out of the sheer feeling of busy-ness, of having just too much to do. Then again, looking at how much I have been doing, especially with the running training, I am burning a lot of energy...

Play, New Shoes, and Work

2008-03-21T21:52:00.003+02:00

White powdery snow glistening,
sun breaking through clouds,
letting snowflakes glitter…

Okay, there was some slush, too, and by the time I went out, and the time I was soon-to-be back, clouds had the TV tower on Zakusala disappear into themselves.

Still, you notice the bad sides, and focus on the great, and such a run is truly enjoyable. - Playing in the snow, again.

03/21/2008 - 02:10.42,0 - 21.62 km - 6'03 min/km - 151 HR avg. - TE 3.4

Today was particularly interesting because I was using my new The North Face Ultra 104 shoes for the first time.

And immediately, it ended up being a 20-km run - quite a sign of faith into the shoes' fit. Well, it turned out to be justified: I'll need to play around with the lacing a bit more to get the best fit, but the tread and sole construction are excellent for Riga's condition. Which is mainly roads, but quite a lot of cobblestone and just plain broken-up asphalt, so that the medium cushioning plus protection from sharp edges, and good grip on various surfaces that these shoes do provide is much called-for.

Using the Suunto FootPOD on new shoes for the first time, I thought it would provide readings which are off quite a bit.

In fact, for the first part of the run, I wanted to stop sooner because my heart rate was rather high (between 155 and 160 is something I consider quite high by now? - quite a change from how it used to be!), and the speed displayed seemed rather too high as well (and I couldn't get myself to go slower - I guess it's the new shoes fault ;-)

Well, in the end I went on, the distance seems about what it should really have been, so I guess I was going faster (and the HR average is good, nonetheless).

Where work is concerned, I still haven't managed to friggin' sit down and study languages, though I finally move towards the attitude that it's not (only, my) work, but a privilege to be in a position where I can (well: could) study languages.
My text on parkour (and data for it) are progressing, however.
And my websites are being developed further; there are good things to come...

Spring has sprung

2008-03-20T12:07:00.002+02:00

I did see some snow fall today, although it's officially the beginning of spring. Looks to be getting rather nicer, though.

This start of spring certainly is good, for it starts with the school having spring break.
I know, I know, the only reason anybody would want to become a teacher...

I am finally asking about getting credit for language courses/classes I am now taking (and should finally go to, again - ahem) here in Latvia, for subjects I am not currently studying but thinking of taking.
Should I not make it to East Asia - and even if I did, but wanted to go on with teacher training studies as well - I'll need to decide how to go on, after all. I wouldn't want to have to sit in any more classes where I'm learning things that I'd be more qualified to teach than the lecturer..

Getting on with work

I am full of ideas for work, i.e. articles to write. I really "only" need to manage to finally make a habit and daily work (rather than a matter of inspiration and muse's kisses) out of writing. I'm getting there, and I wonder if that's the next thing I should start writing into this blog.

Anybody need a (virtual) writing partner to keep one another working? - That's something blogs, even if that is not conducive to getting a wide readership for them, are very good for, in my opinion.

With the training and trainig logs, it works rather nicely, at least.

I got both of my new pairs of running shoes recently, too. They fit, look to be good (and look good, I think), and so I can hardly wait to try them out. Probably won't do so today, nonetheless. I've not been sleeping quite enough, and don't want to overdo it.
Writing some more and sitting down for language study would be something I should rather do.

Last time, yesterday morning:
3/19/2008 - 01:13.50,0 - 10.45 km - 7'04 min/km - 147 avg. HR - TE 3.3

If you don't like the weather...

2008-03-18T15:43:00.003+02:00

... just wait five minutes. Or maybe five days.

Anyways, it's been the warmest winter in Latvia since 1925, February saw just about no snow (relative to what it usually sees, which are snowdrifts). Plants are emerging, buds have begun opening - and now this cold front is moving in and since midday, it's snowing in big wet flakes. By now, it's enough to remain on the ground.

Maybe a good excuse not to go to lectures? Yet again? I don't yet know about that, I really shouldn't, but I really would like to. I need to be a better student again soon, though.

On the other hand, I have been able to make at least a little progress with my writing, and I feel I cannot leave here without getting some of that finished (and I don't even mean because part of it is actually for a course I'm taking at university, too).

You know what they say: All work and no play makes you a dull boy. (I've actually, just as a saying, always preferred "No TV and no beer make Homer go mad.")

And, well, that's why I go running. There's my play. Which reminds me: play (i.e., run) in the snow? Great fun. Great idea, too.... hmm.

I've been finding that writing, to develop ideas and promote new insights, is great fun, too. Seeing - indeed, feeling - it as both fun and work is an attitude I think somebody who wants to have a chance at working as an academic sorely needs to develop, and something that my home university was not good at teaching us...

Sunday = Long Run

2008-03-16T17:34:00.001+02:00

Well, I'm not yet at a point where this would really be like a logical equation, but it's getting more common.
And today, I also went out for my run relatively early in the morning. (Relative for me, for most students and even many Latvians, it's not early in the morning but in the middle of the night…)

The weather news is saying that it should be around freezing, but it certainly isn't below and didn't feel bad, although there was some of the usual Riga rain drizzle and even snow flurries.

One discovery from the path I took: If I wanted to run to "Parkour Academy" at the Olympic Sports Center, or back from there, it wouldn't be too much of a problem.
Later today, I found out that part of my route today is the track for the Riga Marathon (which makes three laps on the same route - booooooring).

The details:
03/16/2008 - 02:21.14,0 - 21.49 km - 6'34 min/km - 149 avg. HR - TE 3.3

Interesting: I finally checked, and Google Maps says that the track I drew in there were about 23 km long - 1.5 km difference to the FootPOD; different, but not too badly.
Even more interesting: It seems that I'm much better at pacing myself during much longer runs than I am during those more common, shorter ones. At least, if I understand correctly that the training effect calculation of Suunto Training Manager relies on heart rate, duration, and heart rate variability, and my TE is typically lower during those long runs (and it used not to be so), I'd assume that the reason must lie with heart rate variability (R-R values).

Whatever. It's just support for my training planning - or rather, not planning but going by intuition - anyways.

Training Recap, and Thoughts on Training Tech

2008-03-15T09:03:00.003+02:00

Haven't been keeping this up-to-date, so here comes a list:

3/05/08 - 00:41.29,9 - 6.63 km - 6'16 min/km - 159 avg. HR - TE 3.8
(fartlek - speed interval training)
3/07/08 - 00:44.41,4 - 6.77 km - 6'36 min/km - 156 avg. HR - TE 3.9
3/08/08 - 01:33.57,0 - 110 avg. HR - TE 2.4 (Parkour)
3/09/08 - 01:36.57,9 - 14.38 km - 6'45 min/km - 150 avg. HR - TE 3.6
3/11/08 - 00:55.54,0 - 8.57 km - 6'31 min/km - 153 avg. HR - TE 3.7
3/13/08 - 00:54.31,9 - 8.55 km - 6'23 min/km - 151 avg. HR - TE 3.7
3/14/08 - 00:56.26,0 - 8.64 km - 6'32 min/km - 151 avg. HR - TE 3.4

I set my max. HR lower than it had been before, consequently the training effect the software calculates is higher than it would have been... I'm still only using it as guideline, and happy as long as it stays below 4 ("highly improving"), let alone 5 ("overreaching"), at which point more recovery would be essential.

Read up on stretching (there was an article in the New York Times):
It's probably no good for avoiding injuries, which it's usually said to be good for.
Being stiffer, a runner is more efficient.

Two points:
So, I guess there is good reason for running tights (I've been using CW-X ones for a long time now). They provide the stiffness.
Physically, however, I'll rather be flexible and nimble. Even in running, if you misstep, it helps; for parkour, martial arts and the like it's a precondition.

Where my older/current shoes' boa lacing is concerned, I got lucky:
My order for replacement parts didn't get through, so I contacted them by e-mail...
The result: the company got some feedback, I'm getting replacement parts for free.
Very sweet.

Suunto - their t6 is the training analysis system I've been using, where the TE (training effect) numbers come from... - is still up to the game, after all:

We have known for a while now that an updated model (t6c) will be coming out this spring. (In the current lineup, the t6 is still presented as the top model, but it does not include the real-time calculation of training effect that the supposed next-best, the t4, can do.)
So far, it sounded as if you would have to get the new model if you wanted the new, real top model.

Now, however, Suunto Helpdesk came through and said that there will also be a firmware update for the old model t6, to effectively turn it into a t6c.

So, there's just the Wearlink-like HR belt to buy, if wanted (and that truly is a replacement part). I wonder how they'll implement the new functions, which they are not saying yet, but it sounds good....

Yeah, sports technology is a strange thing:

On the one hand, I don't like being quite such a geek, especially when it comes to outdoor sports I do (and promote) in part as being active instead of consumptive lifestyles, where you do something for yourself, get to know your immediate environment better, and at the same time reduce your impact on the world.

On the other hand, collecting a decent range of data on what you are doing and how you are doing is motivational and helpful for getting the most out of the training without overdoing it.

In fact, I think that the "internal" data - heart rate, especially - and the possible "external" data - especially geographical, with GPS and the like - can be very supportive of our understanding of where we live, how we are a part of our environment...

Now, let's see...

2008-03-10T21:38:00.002+02:00

Teaching's still one of the strangest activities I've ever undertaken.

Maybe I should compare it to parkour, like an academic compared the discipline studying the effects of the Bible to this activity: In both, and also in teaching, you need to work with what you are given, dealing creatively but not going over the top.
Trouble is that in science and studies, as in parkour, we want to get new places, and we also enjoy the ride. Both are, also, solitary activities at heart, in which you develop your thoughts and your body mainly through your own doing.
Teaching, however, is also like the nature-nurture issue: Overall, about 50% is nature, about 50% is nurture. If you also count peers, then it's 33% each, or thereabouts.
So, you do have to work with the material, in creative ways, but it's only about 50% your own (the teacher's) understanding, creativity, and motivation, and about 50% the students' (pupils') behavior and motivation. If you also add social circumstances, make that 33% each…

Motivation? What motivation? - Learning myself

At least, I felt like not going to Russian class (which was finally taking place again after the teacher had been sick for three classes), but then went anyways.

I understand - therefore - when my pupils don't usually do homework, even when they rarely get any, but I cannot at all understand why they would sabotage their own classes… Well, it's an interesting experience, seeing how things work here (and with that documentary I mentioned yesterday, how they seem to be in China) I'd rather like to know what teaching is like in Austria, and it's only two-and-a-half more months, anyway. Plus, I think that the kids are learning something…
I still want to get into academic and research work. Now more than ever, although I could see myself (still? again?) wanting to go teach once I have been in there for a longer time.

I didn't just go to Russian, I also finally got the evaluation of my teaching from my mentor (and a good one at that). Now, once I finish the lesson plans and self-evaluation I've been working on, I can finally wrap up last semester's "Teaching Practice" course.

Campus Europae, and other plans

It's still not totally clear whether I'll eventually get enough credits for Campus Europae, but looking rather likely again. Should I "only" have to be in Austria, I at least have a number of ideas I would rather like to continue with - this is the first year of this millennium that it's a spring and I am not planting chile peppers, just to mention that - so it would be good. Should I manage to finally make it to East Asia, it would be at least as good. No, in fact, better, but working on those other ideas I probably could also make it there, so it wouldn't be bad, either…

I really wonder, if anybody but my parents is even reading this, if I sound like somebody who knows what he wants to do - which really is the case, the problem is just that I have not been able to make it come true and therefore look not only for the great vision, but for Plans A as well as B (and maybe also C) for putting that vision into practice - or if I come across as a wack job.

Some things also have changed - I obviously have made it abroad, I am more decided on what I want to do than ever before - especially with the endurance sports, it's gotten to the point where I wanted it to be for a while. There is still a ways to go, however. See you there.

Don't feel like writing...

2008-03-09T21:40:00.000+02:00

... so I'm using the function that sends e-mails to become blog posts in
order to feel as if I were not blogging.

Training is continuing, writing is progressing somewhat, but all in all I
feel rather ready to go back home. I'm just not too motivated for anything
right now, that's the simple reason.

I know very well that, should I have been in Austria, things would have been
(or felt) even worse: This way, I am continuing with teacher training
studies and have the additional money I need for it from my scholarship and
my teaching job, at least, not from some job I definitely shouldn't be doing
(the last job I had in Austria was as a security guard...). And, I am
gaining foreign experience again (after my high school year abroad when I
was 15 to 16, so it was high time).

Yet, I also see that I'd rather not teach, or rather, that I would like to,
but not in a condition like we are now having: All responsibility is put on
the teachers' doorstep, the teachers try to only hold the pupils
responsible, and there is hardly any dedication to learning and respect for
teachers.
Today, I saw part of a documentary series on school in China. - Oh my,
students who actually realize the need to learn and (therefore) want to
learn?!
In Europe, it seems that we are losing out because we stand in competition
with those countries like China and India and their students, and yet
continue social, including educational, systems and ideas which make it seem
a right to graduate, not a matter of your personal dedication and ability.

And, I know what I would like to teach, and that I want to work in my chosen
academic fields. Yet, I still can't break into it, and the longer I go
without progress, the harder it gets... but it will be a while yet before I
even know whether I'll be in Austria after the coming summer or gone to
China...

Well, I'll at least better get some sleep and see to it that I go on with my
work early tomorrow morning, as per usual. Fortunately, a little bit is
coming back of my fondness for writing and my understanding of writing as
craftsmanship, as a skill that needs to be honed and arises out of the wish
to communicate insights and findings to others...

Oh my...

2008-03-04T22:54:00.002+02:00

If you don't like the weather, wait five minutes.
That's been today's motto: sunshine and snowstorm followed one another within minutes. Temps are around freezing, but it still seems more spring-like than wintry.

While I was running, it was pretty nice.
03/04/2008 - 00:57.50,0 - 8.91 km - 6'29 min/km avg. - 156 HR avg - TE 3.7
Had HR spiking towards the end, but also coming down quite a bit, and rather quickly. Still, without that, the training effect would have been quite a bit lower (3.2, probably). Shows how strange that is, though it seems not to be anything more than strange...

My daily-wear shoes (also with the boa lacing system) have decided to empathize with my running shoes. The lacing wire of one of them has ripped.
I am getting new running shoes, as it's necessary, and am still wondering about whether to get a second pair for mountain running and parkour (I don't really want to spend - since I don't really have - the money, but then again...). So, super glue will be on again.

Advice for the traveler:
If you don't want to suddenly need new shoes, get a pair that's made in traditional, or at least less-modern ways, definitely with shoe laces, and bring a replacement pair of laces.

The new call for applications for Austria's one (yes: one) spot in the JET programme to work as Assistant Language Teacher (ALT) in Japan is out again, as I just discovered. It's also for working at a place I'd like to get to.

This program is at least half-responsible for my studying teacher training, because I applied before and they didn't even want to talk with me. Since then, I think I have become a much stronger candidate. I'm intent on making my way to East Asia, finally, too.
Still, I don't think I'll apply for it. I couldn't afford to go to Austria for the interview - provided I even got that far this time around - and it would set me all too strongly on a course to going on as teacher, but I finally want to publish as a researcher again, before too much time passes in which I haven't managed to get anything written and published (and actually, rather too much time has already passed like that...).
There is still another possibility for going to Japan the applications for which I'm waiting for (it should be soon), which would fit better both considering time frames and considering my plans. Or so I'm telling myself, for, then again....

Half Marathon Run

2008-03-03T17:36:00.002+02:00

View as Google Map

03/02/2008 - 02:16.19,9 - 20.36 km - 6'42 min/km avg. - 150 HR avg. - TE 3.5
(and there, I set my max. HR lower than it had recently been, and lower than the parkour training would make it be set automatically.
Which - PK training, that is, was the day before, again: 1 hour 38 min. of it ;-)

So, I guess I will probably need 4:30 to 5 hours for a marathon, but judging by how I am feeling today, I could probably both do Riga and Stockholm Marathon... We'll see about that.

Non-existent good day

2008-02-29T23:49:00.003+02:00

After all, this day is a leap year's day, a day that does not usually (in other years) exist?!
And, it was a rather good day.

At least, I started this week thinking I should quit my teaching job. The difficult class was just too difficult. But then, my two other classes are acceptable to nice (the one), and a real pleasure (the other), and even the teaching in the not-very-pleasurable one just went as good as it gets.
Still, I am making observations about differences between Austrian and Latvian students and their respective discipline, let alone what would happen in the US if students behaved like that...

Anybody who says that it's all a matter of the teacher, or all depending on the students, has never taught anyone anything. The best teacher couldn't do anything if the students didn't want to cooperate; but how the students will act (up) is also a matter of what the teaching is like. And then, there are cultural backgrounds as well.

Had my telephone interview for the lectureship in China application today, think it went reasonably well. One more step, unless it runs into a wall. Yes, I'll admit: I'm one of those who rather expect, or at least mentally fortify themselves against, the worst.
Actually, that may be an attitude I should try out with writing and sending in texts for publication - make it as good as you can, and then submit it.
Don't try to prevent rejections by not even trying.

Training 02/29/2008

2008-02-29T23:36:00.002+02:00

00:58.03,9 - 8.97 km - 6'28 min/km - HR avg. 152 - TE 3.2

One dog barking stupidly, one guy shouting something out a car travelling at at least 60 km/h at least 30 meters away, hence even more stupidly... With the humans, I keep wondering how many of those who laugh would last through a run.

Too many runs of the same effect, probably, but I'm still more concerned about getting in my mileage, keeping a constant pace, and seeing that my heart rate does not get any sudden peaks (which, recently, has not happened anymore).

2/28/2008

2008-02-29T06:57:00.004+02:00

Running: 00:58.55,9 - 9.71 km - 6'04 min/km - HR avg. 153 - TE 3.5

Looking to replace most of my shoes. Having received an old pair from home (as I wanted), I had to realize that replacements are becoming necessary... the stitched-together pair (which is the most recent I bought) is still holding up nice, but a single pair of running shoes won't cut it.

That night, I was a bad student again, not going to my lectures.
Shopped around for shoes, and did some shopping for food to treat myself to a nice break instead.

It was necessary, for some things are nearly freaking me out. - Another month in Latvia is as good as over, there are not so many more to go, and I would feel as if I failed if I didn't manage to finish some writing I wanted to get done here. Part of it is also needed for a course I want to finish here, and it and something else (my writing on "The Ecology of Happiness," of course) would be a chance for taking another small step towards an academic career.
And that remains - or now, is even more strongly - my first priority, not the teacher training... So much, again, for Austria's constant stating that "we needed more academics." For the OECD statistics which say that there were too few, yes; in practice, there are not many decent opportunities. Finding work abroad isn't all that easy, either. Well, anyways...

I did, however, register for the Riga Marathon. Doesn't necessarily mean that I'll actually participate in it; I'll decide that on the spot. Would be nice, though.

Running 2/26/2008

2008-02-29T06:55:00.001+02:00

00:56.00,0 - 9.63 km - 5'49 min/km - HR avg. 150 - TE 3.1

Trying to get back to making quick, separate posts about this...

Where to next?

2008-02-24T20:29:00.004+02:00

All right.
This week, I managed to send off the two applications for going to China next academic year (Lektoratsprogramm der Österreich-Kooperation, a chance to work abroad as lecturer in a German studies department, and the CSC - Chinese Government Scholarship program, EU window).
Normally, I'd not even mention a thing like that. That way, at least there'd be fewer people who know that there might have been something if it doesn't work out... and there are always tons of possible reasons for a negative reply...

Next up, an application for studying in Japan, next year.

As always, trying to psychologically protect myself, I have also been working on Plan B, some travel dreams I realize I could very well do on a sabbatical should I get to work as teacher:

View Larger Map

I must admit, though, that the present experience has led me to realize that I would not dislike to work as teacher and do research "on the side," but I would still very much prefer to work as academic (doing research and teaching at university).

With the applications that are now current, I guess some things will be decided soon enough.

At least, Plan A (work/study in East Asia, finally gaining knowledge and experience there, and getting on the track to an academic career again) is good, and Plan B (continuing with teacher training studies, going abroad again with Campus Europae, financing research through that) is equally as good.

I just wouldn't want to go from teaching and studying to only being a teacher training student (and always wanting to ask the professors if they ever tried out what they suggest we should do once we are teachers).

There is another realization, too: Things work out like I thought they should. Teaching at school, I want to get into research; analyzing and writing about data, I'd much rather have another class.

Sitting down to study languages is still not my strong suit, though. Even though - and probably, even because - I am pretty good at acquiring languages.

Running:
02/22/2008 - 00:44.55,9 - 7.38 km - 6'05 min/km - 152 HR avg. - TE 3.3
02/23/2008 - 00:31.18,0 - 5.31 km - 5'54 min/km - 152 HR avg. - TE 3.1
(had a very strange encounter I don't want to talk about during this run,
that's why it was so short)
02/24/2008 - 01:17.09,9 - 12.59 km - 6'08 min/km - 153 HR avg. - TE 3.4

Time's a friend? - 30th birthday today

2008-02-21T22:10:00.001+02:00

"You should pick one."
"What?"
"A birthday."
"What for?"
"In this short brutal life, you gotta seize any opportunity you can to celebrate."
(Max and Logan, beginning of S1 E04 of "Dark Angel")

It was not only the last total lunar eclipse for some years, which we didn't get to see in Riga because it was both foggy and cloudy, it's also my 30th. birthday today…

I let two of my classes write their test today anyway (they didn't even know). Judging by a first glance, the one did very well, the others didn't do too well. And for once, it should absolutely be the ones who don't listen who also had quite some trouble. I so don't understand what they think they are doing…
My 11th. grade class had known about my birthday for a while, and we celebrated:

I can tell that I am getting old… What shows it is that I have actually come to appreciate when somebody tells me that I look younger than my age ;-)

Russian class went nicely, though I don't know about next week's test for last semester I will be taking… studying would be a good idea (that possible part about my pupils I understand, but constantly chatting in class?). Otherwise, however, I have not been going to most classes this week. I needed the time out, and focused on getting my applications for - hopefully, possibly - going to China next academic year finished. I should be at that point, and sending them off, tomorrow…

On the issue of endurance:
100 days to go until the Stockholm Marathon takes place.

Training:
2/17 - 00:56.53,9 - 9.43 km - 6'02 min/km - HR avg. 149 - TE 3.1
2/19 - 00:43.43,0 - 7.12 km - 6'08 min/km - HR avg. 151 - TE 3.2
2/21 - 00:57.02,0 - 9.61 km - 5'56 min/km - HR avg. 152 - TE 3.4
Yep, I managed to squeeze in some time today. Had missed my training time yesterday, and wanted to make up for it today. At least in some things, I need to be and remain consistent. I'd want to also get there with more of my language studies, but alas… And some things, a birthday doesn't change at all.

"... maybe I should pick a birthday, just to have something to celebrate in this short, brutal life. ... Yesterday. Yeah. Born yesterday. And the best part is, I have a whole year not to think about it."
Max, at the end of the episode mentioned above. Mirrors my feelings about it.

The week in review, or something like that

2008-02-16T16:35:00.002+02:00

A bit past 4 p.m., and I have to draw the curtains - because otherwise, I'd not be able to see the computer screen at all, the sun is shining so brightly.

Soon after coming here, the time of sunlight declined dramatically, and what felt not so long ago, it was pretty dark at around this time. I used to go out running at 4 o'clock, in the dark.
Still, when I last wrote, it was also rather warm, spring was in the air, I found the first green buds, and willow flowers about to open. Then, it rained quite a lot but was warm. Now, since two days ago, it's either sunshine in blue skies with dark clouds, or snow storms, and pretty cold again. (Then again, it's like that almost all over Europe right now…)

At least, I did not let the strange weather keep me from my running.

Last Saturday, parkour training was on again: 02/09/2008 - 01:32.17 - HR avg. 144 - TE 3.4
02/10/2008 - 00:35.07,9 - 5.67 km - 6'12 min/km - HR avg. 154 - TE 3.3
02/11/2008 - 00:45.00,9 - 7.16 km - 6'17 min/km - HR avg. 148 - TE 2.9
02/12/2008 - 00:45.30,9 - 7.72 km - 5'54 min/km - HR avg. 150 - TE 3.1
02/15/2008 - 01:12.13,0 - 11.59 km - 6'14 min/km - HR avg. 150 - TE 3.2
Today, parkour again: 02/16/2008 - 01:29.00 - HR avg. 116 - TE 2

Met a gymnast from Austria at today's training… Quite interesting, how I can tell since when I have been here, but not how long. I am able to tell (to the day - because of a countdown on my notebook) how many more days I'll be here, however. And it's quite few, considering how quickly time is passing, and how much I still need and/or want to get done. Sort of freaks me out…

This week, without teaching, I had at least been able to work in a more relaxed way. At least theoretically. In fact, I am not so sure it helped me:

At the start of yesterday's run, I lost the FootPOD (speed & distance sensor). Where I heard something suspicious, and saw that it had dropped off, was not actually where I had lost it. Fortunately, checking how much of a distance had been recorded, I found it. After some adjustment, it stayed on, and the run - in spite of the cold and some breezes of snow, and even some stupid teenagers who have to laugh at me (because of the running tights, no doubt) - was very enjoyable.
Running that circle passing over the Daugava twice, I keep wondering what it will be like to run in the mountains and view the Traunsee like that (during the Bergmarathon at the beginning of July)…

One of these days, I helped a school colleague with his letter of recommendation (the translation to English, that is). I had promised, so I did - and there, I still haven't managed to get all my own letters of recommendation together. It is all but impossible to get in touch with most of the people who are the right ones for that (except one - hat tip to Prof. Schrittesser here: Thank you!) … Then, in an attempt to get my computer files organized, I managed to delete some of the writing necessary for one of my applications for going to China. So, yesterday was spent re-writing those. Great. At least, things are coming along, and I should be able to finish all of that soon, well within time. Which probably means that I will just barely make it. Still, this is the single most important thing on my to-do list right now.

However, I still have more, especially for school (teaching) and for university, that needs to be done. This week, I kept on not wanting to go to various lectures because I'm all stressed out about it. (Usually, I did still go.)

Thursday, I finally did something touristy again - went (with a teacher and some pupils) to the Mencendorfa nams (Mentzendorf House), a nicely renovated old house of Riga, which formerly belonged to - well, guess what - the Mentzendorf family. Among other things, they were the official country representatives for the Swiss chocolate makes Lindt and Sprüngli…

Oh, yes: And I may, but should "as soon as possible" (quoting my teacher there) write the test for last semester's Russian course. I still feel so unprepared for it… and I still need to get some things written for other (pedagogy) courses of last semester, and this, and that, and I certainly could find some more ideas, oh yes, that, and something else,….. et cetera….. and so on….
My (informal?) life motto, more and more: "There is no rest for the wicked."

Call me crazy any day

2008-02-09T16:18:00.000+02:00

... or maybe: Learnt a lot. Still little use.

I just found a preview video for a book, coming from a writer's magazine, out of a contest to write your memoirs in six words (http://www.sixwordmemoir.com/).

It's strangely moving to read so little, and yet find that it tells a story. And somehow, I've been on quite a memory trip during my time here, so the theme of memoirs is rather fitting, as well.

Never wanted but to live my way.

Okay, technically, that's one word too many. Which, in itself, would be very fitting.
I think that's the one for me...

RIP: Running Shoes; Second Semester, now really real

2008-02-09T08:22:00.000+02:00

My running shoes' BOA lacing system ripped yesterday, succumbing to the strain put on it by the FootPOD (they use a special lacing like it's mainly used on snowboard shoes, with wires and a wheel instead of laces and a knot you make - the wire got frayed...).
They'll not actually rest in peace, though, for I've macgyvered the lacing and some additional support for it and the POD (my speed and distance sensor). Knew there was an effect and a reason to watching too much MacGyver all my teen years (yup, I'm of that generation).

Last run (where that happened):
02/08/2008 - 01:02.38,9 - 9.71 km - 6'27 min/km - HR avg. 147

It would be less than 100 days to the Riga Marathon, but I still haven't decided about running in it. It's rather too close to Stockholm, and I've not been doing quite as much recently as I should. And then, I am now officially on the list of starters at this year's (20.) Bergmarathon (mountain marathon) around the Traunsee...

This was the first week of both teaching at school and studies at university of my second semester in Riga.
I will indeed do just about as little as I've ever done at a university during this semester, but it still promises to be challenging:

Quite a lot of (research) writing for one course, and of course the writing I wanted to get done anyways;
Russian - first class, our teacher was (again) not here, there would have been only three students there, and in the end was only one girl and I, and what we did - got to do - was the pre-test I walked away from at the beginning of last semester because I was always only guessing. There was still a lot of guesswork, but this time around I did do it from beginning to end;
Spanish - I can still stammer a lot, read texts quite a bit more advanced than we are usually reading for this course, am in the most advanced course, and notice that I have forgotten a whole lot of the grammar. It already seems to have been a good choice, though. I like it a lot, remember that I like the language and - interest in chile peppers and all - wanted to also make it back to Spain and South America, and finally to Mexico...
Two literature courses - I rather enjoy them, as it turns out, they'll finish rather earlier than most courses (which I'll appreciate), and I'm quite certain I'll get them counted towards my studies. I'll really be all but finished with literature courses, though...
... and most of the courses I can take are in the evening or even at night.

Yes, this is what counts as "doing little" for me. And I still want to repeat my Chinese, and maybe sometimes go to classes here just to see what the teaching is like in other places.

Now. - Next week is very nice: Project week at school, and I didn't get around to suggesting a project - at least for the pupils. My project, therefore, will be to get on with my writing and research, and to submit (most of) the two applications which are due soon-ish.

Both of these applications - I'll finally say it - are for different chances for going to China for the next academic year.

That would be great for language learning and cultural experience, excellent for my research, and not at all bad for teacher training studies.

Well, that last one, it wouldn't be, "officially-speaking." University of Vienna has finally started thinking about offering teacher training for Chinese language, but it's still earlier than in planning stage. So, Chinese wouldn't count towards my teacher training studies, but I am also registered as a student of Chinese because I want to become able to teach it.... that's one of the points why things are quite complicated... because I'm studying languages to study and get certification as (high school) teacher for them, and also studying Chinese so that I would not - since Austria does not have them, officially - be a Chinese language school teacher, but certified as a teacher and proficient in Chinese, and therefore able and qualified to teach it, nonetheless. (If I ever get to that point.)
Of course, it could all go differently, they don't pick me, and I go on in Austria. Or they pick me, I go on that way, and get into an academic career in sustainability, after all.

Hmm

2008-02-05T22:31:00.000+02:00

Still don't quite know about some things which should be easy, but at least found that I do still remember quite some Spanish... wish I remembered Chinese like that, though. I almost do, but only almost...
Decisions, decisions.

At least, I finally finished the questionnaire for traceurs, posted its announcement on just two main boards, and already got a nice number of responses. Even if it still does not make a career of it, I love being able to go on with - there's a reason I keep on referring to it this way - my work.

Training:

00:56.05,2 - 9.23 km - 6'05 min/km - HR avg. 158 - TE 4.8

Ready. Set. 2nd Semester

2008-02-04T21:58:00.000+02:00

Pictures from the Rundale Excursion, last weekend:
http://picasaweb.google.at/lh/searchbrowse?q=Rundale+Excursion

Last Friday, went for a chat with Prof. Bluma, resident coordinator for the Campus Europae program…
She is all right with me organizing just about everything myself by now, just eager to help if there should be any problems. The main problems I had been having were at her faculty, but rather due to the usual bad or mis-communication.

The (last) week in training:
01/28: 01:00.53,8 - 9.42 km - 6'28 min/km - HR avg. 149 - TE 3.6
01/31: 02:00.30,7 - 18.68 km - 6'27 min/km - HR avg. 153 - TE 4.3
02/02: 01:02.03,9 - 9.95 km - 6'14 min/km - HR avg. 150 - TE 4.3
I updated the map of my running routes, by the way:

View Larger Map

I'm in the process of registering to "compete" in the Bergmarathon (70 km around the Traunsee in Austria, with 4300 meters of difference in altitude) in July.
I love that event especially because there is no official time-taking, it's officially all about simply making it.

Academic Issues

Today, planning for this semester went on, and it's still difficult.

Sometimes I (almost) ask myself what I'm doing here; it's no surprise it can be pretty hard for others to understand my career path. Yet, I see that there would be some nice things to work on in Austria, but also great opportunities abroad and through going abroad… I'll certainly be trying my luck at those. And if they don't work out, there's still good work to be done.

Now, the question with the planning for the semester is how I can manage to do enough for my necessary credits, and little enough to still have enough time for training and my work. Getting that all coordinated is quite difficult already, but should be working out.
What really get's to me is that I'll probably be just about finished with some subject areas for teacher training in English (literature), whereas in others I'll be back to the beginning (like linguistics). Yet, the courses I could take here would probably not be accepted as equivalent with the ones to take in Austria…
Moreover, I don't want to overdo it again, as usually, and in the end fail to finish some of the things I promised myself I would manage to get done while I'm here. - And amongst those, there is Russian language learning, and there is some research and publications to get done... if I fail to publish much longer, I would have to forget about a scientific career, and even while I am now working on teacher training, I will not give that up.

I'll just have to try and see.

Viss buus labi...

2008-01-28T21:41:00.000+02:00

All will be well.

Walking along the Esplanade on my way to school this morning, I noticed how bright the sky had already become.
I still think I was remembering last Tuesday too much. On Tuesdays, I go along that way an hour earlier, when it's still dark. Still, days seem to be getting a bit longer.

It's not much yet, but I checked today… oh, boy, what a change:
Tomorrow, time of daylight will be 4 minutes longer than today,
in a week, we'll have 27 more minutes of daylight,
in two weeks, almost one more hour, and
in two months, four and a half more hours of daylight!

Still, weather-wise it's very strange, and not just because I don't know what Latvia should be like. Now, it tends to be quite cold, but hardly freezing, oftentimes almost balmy (especially having gotten used to the cold ;-).
On excursion last Saturday, (yes there are pictures, they will be up soon; maybe also some notes on it) our guide noticed tulip bulbs which were showing the first of their leaves. The cats and pigeons in the city are getting amorous, too.
Yet, February could still get darn cold…

There remains to be just too much to do, and I honestly can't quite decide how to go about things. I'd like to take more language classes this semester, but then I'd rather overdo it then do only a few (as always). And I definitely need to get some of my own work done, including for some courses…
Add to that the teaching, the time for endurance training… Maybe I should try to do much less. But then I wouldn't even get the number of credits / lectures I need for Campus Europae, and even if I can't tell if I'll ever finish that, I sure wouldn't want to destroy my chances for doing so when I can leave them intact.
Yet, I can't even tell where the next academic year will lead me. I hope, abroad again, and even further this time. I sure am applying for the relevant scholarships, and I know where I want to go. Still, you never know (hence, my not telling what I'm applying for, by the way).

In between...

2008-01-25T21:45:00.000+02:00

... 2008 promises to be an interesting year, when I'll hopefully get quite a few interesting things done. To get there, some things need to get done right now, however, and much more as the year progresses. Both work-wise, and where applications are concerned. I only want to mention it right now, however, and not to go into any detail.

Right now, time-wise, the first semester in Latvia should be over where tests and the like are concerned. However, for me, it isn't quite so. And the second semester hasn't yet started. I already know the lectures which will be over (by and large), but I only know the times for a few of them.

Somehow, I have the feeling that I will feel I'm using my time better only when university courses start again, and I have seriously too much to do, not just rather too much.

Training so far this week:
1/21 - 00:33.43,0 - 5.44 km - 6'12 min/km - HR avg. 156 - TE 3.8
1/22 - 00:33.30,0 - 5.51 km - 6'05 min/km - HR avg. 153 - TE 3.6
1/25 - 01:18.00,0 - 11.9 km - 6'33 min/km - HR avg. 154 - TE 4.3

Thursday was too much to do and rain in the evening, so I decided to stay in.

Guess what? Friday I went out running and the rainy weather was just the same as Thursday evening, but I enjoyed it... and I ran a route leading over two bridges, running along the Daugava on two sides of the river. - Seeing it this way, the city sure has started to feel smaller and smaller ;-)

And, a note on training analysis... having the HRmax. be updated automatically (with the high heart rate I get during parkour training), the training effect values would be a level lower...

Week to 1/20

2008-01-21T06:52:00.000+02:00

I hardly even noticed, but the cold pretty much disappeared.
I also hardly noticed how time was passing...

Some more exams at LU.
Or really, one presentation of a portfolio. In a course I considered not finishing because I was very conflicted about it, but in the end I finished, got a good grade, and got some good ideas out of it, to boot.
And, one case where the decision was that I still have to hand in one more essay (which I knew) and then would have my grade. No need for a final exam/essay... Sweet.

With the cold and all that, I did less training. I did get some books I'd been waiting for, and some in addition. And in the last few days of this last week, I therefore read three novels, something approaching a thousand pages... No wonder I didn't blog. (I was also teaching, writing on another work...)

Training:
01/16, running, 00:33.55, 5.29 km, 6'25 min/km, HR avg. 154, TE 3.5
01/19, parkour. 01:35.25, 165 HR avg., 4.3 TE
Parkour, even if compared to running, continues to strike me as being much closer to martial arts than to endurance training, it's rather anaerobic training. With the additional strength training, in particular. It's still great as cross-training; I certainly needed it...

Training 01/14/2008

2008-01-15T21:21:00.000+02:00

Something like a cold is still around; today (01/15), I rather rested. I can't believe I'm, in parts (triceps, mainly) still sore from parkour training.

Yesterday, I did go out for a little run:
00:34.03,7 - 5.28 km

First time (ever? in a long time?) my Suunto t6 training watch went crazy on me:
I continued to see the heart rate and everything, but the HR was not recorded after the 18th. minute of the run. Very strange...

Secondly, perspectives.

2008-01-13T09:15:00.000+02:00

The snow which seemed destined to stay is all gone but for some sorry remains. It almost feels like spring, but January and February are the coldest months.

Shortly ago, I met one of the French foreign students. He complained about the cold while I was wondering about the cozy temperatures - but then, he'd just been in Southern France, I'd been here during the minus 10 Celsius. All a question of perspective.

My coordinator for Campus Europae in Austria had asked me to give him some feedback on how things were going, and we found a similar situation with that:
My colleague seems to have said that it were a dangerous area we are in, for example, and that you even heard gunshots in the night.
I'm saying that it's supposed to be a dangerous area, but I've been going running and nothing has happened, as far as I know no one has been robbed, and as to the "gun shots," I rather wonder how many students really know what gun shots sound like. I may have heard some recently, but I also heard a lot of fireworks, heavy metal lids clanging shut in a single "baaam," backfiring cars,....

The list would go on, but I just want to say that:
I've come to understand a lot more of what cultural anthropology is looking for. It seems to really be (or have been, where studies are concerned) a good fit for me, as I seem to have a slight "defect" where I don't see things as normal when they are as they are done "back home," but just look around and see what's normal where I am finding myself, and take that as the standard.

Which is not to say that I wouldn't be myself, and speak out about problems, for example... Yet, I find it rather amusing that some seemed to have "accepted and adapted" more thoroughly: They described how shocked they were about people's friendliness in other countries, compared to the lack of friendliness of Latvians - and how they themselves didn't act as friendly as they used to. WTF?!
There are some problems, but the same as everywhere. It just depends on how you view it.
In fact, I think that Latvian inhabitants would have more reason to be less friendly than some others, for you can't even know whether Latvian or Russian would be better understood in any one situation (and what use is being friendly when it's not understood).
At the same time, I can remember hardly any truly unfriendly situation I was in, and quite a few nice ones. Maybe that's in part because I accept how it is, don't judge, but continue to behave as a well-educated, old school Austrian. (No, I don't kiss hands just to say hello. And that's only to be done indoors, anyway ;-)

For one: Training 01/13 - Parkour

2008-01-13T08:53:00.000+02:00

The cold isn't winning, but strongly bio-rhythmic again: in the morning, it seems pretty bad, during the day it's all but gone, only to return towards bedtime.

So, I took a time-out again on 01/12, and finally went to "Parkour Academy" again for some cross-training yesterday. - And I should go there more often, since my work (writing) on parkour is coming along - but slowly - and this training is also anthropological field work.

Gosh, I hate it ;-)
I've been doing well with running, but nearly forgotten all about upper-body strength. For parkour, and doing parkour, you need quite a bit of that. So, I'm always pretty sore after such training. Still, it is running-related, and I think it may be one of the best forms of cross-training, and indeed of allround training (core strength, balance, flexibility - some of which usually get forgotten), one can get.
I'm thinking about writing a little piece on that, but it's not as if I didn't have enough to do, anyways...

It definitely is anaerobic, highly variant, training:
HR was between 80 and 190, average at 138, training effect 3.1.
And I forgot to turn on the HR recording, so the strength training in the first half is missing from these notes and calculations.

Running Music, and Training 01/10/08

2008-01-10T21:09:00.000+02:00

01/10/2008: 01:10.43,5 - 9.95 km - 7'06 min/km - HR avg. 149 - TE 3.5
Indeed, a slight cold. It seems to be losing this time, though.
Temperatures are up above freezing again, and it feels like spring after the minus 10 Celsius we had. Took a different route today. It led me past the train station and the Central Market, and required quite a lot of walking in between...

I have a confession to make. Or something like that: I've come to be a running purist.

Recently, I thought back over my running "career" so far.

I started out barely able to run a kilometer or two without feeling that it were drudgery. I was simply out of shape where running was concerned, and probably went way too fast.
Among other things, I found that music helped. A heart rate monitor was a good choice, too…

Since I've become a more dedicated runner, maybe a real runner, I have started to think that you need music only as long as you are not a real runner.

To me, then, running has become a form of meditation: I need to be totally in the moment, yet forget that "I" even am, and let my self disappear into the very motion.
Music, therefore, is in the run. The music of running is only the feet on the pavement and the in-and-out of my breath, the rustle of leaves in the wind…

You need an IPod only if you need a combo placebo and rose-colored glasses. A placebo, because it helps you when you think that it does help, e.g. with motivation. And rose-colored glasses because it doesn't let you see that - oh my God, it's so exhausting but fortunately I'm distracted - you are indeed running, but makes you re-interpret it (as dance, as a game,...).

So, I've come to think. Or not?

Thinking of an IPod's earplugs as a kind of horse's blinkers for runners, preventing them from seeing that they are actually running, it's all the more interesting to note how you can, all the same, fall into the trap of judging others completely by your own limited vision.

I have my strong opinion - I even started to think that the HR monitor should not be checked too much (except it's rather important in my case), and certainly shouldn't tell you too much (go slower, go faster, no - too much)…
Yet, all those things are or can be tools, and it depends on how you use them or whether you need or want to use them.
I can, for example, sympathize with the argument that you can also listen to or hear audiobooks and the like on your IPod, multitasking between exercise and education. I don't think it's a good choice, at least not anymore, but it's every individual's choice.

I also want to brave, and in fact have come to love, "bad" weather and hate the very idea of running on a treadmill. That's just my personal approach, however (and if we got -20C, I'd probably be on the next treadmill nonetheless).

Making generalizations and judgments is sort of fun (in a me/us-versus-them way), but also pretty stupid in the end:
Generalizing, imagining what's your reason, I can't really tell how you feel about what you're doing, why you are or aren't running with music, that provided by your IPod, or that of your own running.

Links:

"Attack of the Zombie Runners" on runnersworld.com, a very strong opinion against the IPod-runner crowd
"They’re Playing My Song. Time to Work Out." NYTimes article on the motivational power of music for exercising

Back to school, it's been for me

2008-01-09T08:41:00.000+02:00

Second term started with a little bang: All timetables are changed.

Of course, it's not a problem right now (well, yesterday I had to leave at seven to make it in time, which wasn't all that great); in February, when I need to get my own schedule at university organized, too, I might ask for some more changes myself.

At university, my own first exams went well, but some organizational issues are in a state of confusion - I found out only now that I was registered for a course I had been told I could not register for (and therefore, of course, didn't do anything for), and I can't tell - nor find out, so far - what course code my teaching practice course has, or what's required to hand in?!

I recently noticed a few more things about teaching:

Teaching may be more of a challenge here rather than in Austria, as you have a wide range of student skills. After all, Latvia has a common school (Gesamtschule), not a segregation of students into different types of school (not such a strong one, anyways) based on their academic aptitude.
In Austria, recent arguments against a common school revolve around this issue - with students of a wider range of skills, you couldn't effectively deal with all of them. And I'm saying it that way on purpose, "deal with," because I'm coming to see that it's a matter of, well, taking the challenge or wanting things to go easy without having to do too much for it...
Pupils learn differently, have different levels of skill in different subjects, and are of various learning types, anyways. So, it's a challenge for the teacher to teach effectively, more so when students skill levels differ more, but not impossible.

If you really thought that students had to be at the same level and of the same skills to be taught effectively, then our Austrian Gymnasium (academically-oriented high school) would need to separate students the way the Hauptschule (general high school) does. [There you get different "Leistungsgruppen," e.g. English, Maths for students who are very good, mediocre, or pretty bad in that subject.]

If you want to be an effective teacher, you actually need to teach for reality, not imaginary students. The reality is that there are always different levels of knowledge, different levels of skill, and different learning types…

Language accents continue to be an interesting issue.
My pronunciation of English (that, of all the languages I have some idea of) has the most noticeable Austrian/German accent (not nearly as bad as Schwarzenegger's - or so I've been told and certainly hope, but he's a well-known example of where that can lead).

So, I wouldn't want to teach total beginners. Should I have children, were they to grow up in a non-German speaking country, they'd probably have a "father language" different from their "mother language" because I'd talk to them in German.In many private language schools, I wouldn't be hired to teach English because they usually want native speakers. Even though, aside from pronunciation, there is no reason they'd be better teachers of the language than non-native speakers at that level. But it goes deeper…

For English language teaching and communication practice in general, a "non-native" accent may be an asset:

Just consider that English is nowadays (in the scientific community) talked of as "Englishes."
There is barely a singular English when it comes to writing (just check native speakers' writing in online texts); in language practice, there are distinct differences between different regions even within the English-speaking countries. A New York taxi driver sounds different from a high society girl; a Texan from a New Englander; a Brit from an Ozi - and you also have English(es) in South Africa and India.
Yet, English students commonly don't want to talk because of their accents!

There, having a teacher whose accent isn't perfect may be helpful rather than problematic.
It's still possible to correct the more egregious problems (and besides, if others had a perfect accent, they seem incapable of teaching it to others… students I've heard so far aren't all that good; and, I have heard a lot of complaints or sympathy, but also never found anybody who had effective ideas for improving my own pronunciation.)
And when the teacher doesn't always sound perfect, the students may be more open to talking rather than refusing to talk because they couldn't speak perfectly.

Training 01/08/2008

2008-01-08T21:04:00.000+02:00

Slightly sore throat, probably a beginning cold;
temperatures are a bit higher again (just below freezing), we had some slight snow once more.

01/08: 00:47.59 - 6.93 km - 6'55 min/km - HR avg. 154 - TE 3.6

Training 01/06/2008

2008-01-06T21:14:00.000+02:00

Felt quite like home, sometimes, in winter:
Quite cold, windy, but in such a way you sometimes don't notice, sometimes notice strongly; light snow in the morning added to the snow cover that was already there, wind builds slight snow drifts.
Beautiful hearing the fresh cold snow crunch moaningly under the feet, seeing where people have passed, and where the own track is a new one.

01:15.00 - 11.61 km - avg. 6'28 min/km - HR avg. 159 - TE 4.4

Valuing 2008 (100th post!?)

2008-01-05T20:45:00.000+02:00

See, it was time for New Year's Resolutions, everybody's going crazy about them… and already, they are all but forgotten. That's one of the reasons I don't participate in that kind of thing.

I do make decisions to change habits I consider not-so-good (or return to former habits I consider better), though, and 2008 I need to make a break.
A break out of this stalemate of being a researcher and educator by education and intent, but seemingly not getting ahead in this area.

(That I am also working, by necessity, as and on becoming a teacher is not such a problem, but it adds to the oddity: it's meant to help me get on with my life, which is in sustainability / "green culture" research and education.)

So,

I have returned to getting up at 5:30. (Recently, it used to be 6:00; so it's not such a great change. Interestingly, it seems to be better than that. I will have to see whether it will make me too sleepy in the bus or during lectures when I don't go to bed early enough, though.)
Then, I have a bowl of matcha (which I started drinking first thing in the morning last year already), and
I sit down to get on with some of my writing before other chores kick in (hopefully, or making it so).

And, I aim for getting three areas of work into every day…

writing, as I'm working on some publications;
training, running or otherwise (I'm still forgetting about stretching, strength training, ninjutsu / ToShinDo - which would be martial arts I began studying when I was 15); and
language learning.

In 2008, I'll turn 30.
So, even I can't escape thinking about my life so far and what I want to do with the rest of it (provided there's much of a rest: Typically, there should be at least as long a rest; statistically, quite a bit more than that. I'm very aware of its frailty, though…).

Therefore, it is a good point in time at which to realize that there is a problem to the many admonitions that we had only one life (as far as we know with certainty):

They tell you only to live - or maybe to enjoy - your life.

What they should (also) tell you, however, is that you have to risk this one life to follow your dreams - as far as they are not just wacky: I want to get rich and famous without doing anything for it, for example, is not a "dream," it's a delusion.

I want to learn this and that language and have experience living in this or that country is a different issue.
A dream such as that should not be so difficult to realize, and is something you can work on. If you don't work on it, and fail because of that, it's something you'll probably always regret.
That's why it's necessary to risk your life following that sort of idea, even if others should shake their heads, wondering why you can't just relax and let it all slide.

Something on the side:
According to blogger's statistics, this is post #100 on this blog.

Excursion Photos, and Cooking

2008-01-05T20:43:00.000+02:00

Pictures taken during the recent excursion into the countryside are here.

More, maybe less creative, cooking:

Sweet potatoes and salmon in marinade of soy, lime, and chilli.

Sweet potatoes and zucchini with Italian herbs

Pan pizza with salami and feta.
That's one thing that's been taking its while to get good: "baking" pizza in a pan.
Making only a little dough, putting it over low heat, it works pretty well; fresh-made pizza dough is really simple: flour, yeast, some olive oil, some more water - but it's a matter of practice to figure out how much of what you need and how you put those ingredients together to get it just right. I couldn't put it up like a recipe...

Training note

2008-01-04T22:27:00.000+02:00

Went running. Not so long because it's cold, but while the sun was still out.

00:42.08,0 - 7.12 km - 5.55 min/km - HR avg. 161 - TE 4.1

Running tights, insulator top as baselayer and windstopper top as outer layer, plus gloves, beanie and facemask were still sufficient; the cold does, however, make me run faster and my heart follow - though not badly at all.
Only after getting back, I found that the weather info said it was currently -11 degrees Celsius… it will be getting warmer, though: Up to top temperatures of minus 3C. That might feel like spring (and it should snow again…).

Otra skolotaju ekskursija

2008-01-03T22:24:00.000+02:00

A second / another teachers' excursion.

Started early, went out into the country to Gulbene, towards Aluksne on a small-gauge (?) / regional train. Actually, which I hadn't known, we went to get into the forest there, where there were some Christmas / New Year/ winter-related games. That's something I'm so not into, and because I didn't know we'd be outside quite so much, I wasn't dressed quite warm enough.

Nonetheless, it offered relaxation, and some interesting observations:

The countryside is nothing if not depopulated. Or getting there? Or not?
You can find old buildings caving in after neglect, old buildings obviously still in use, as well as new construction… where things are going down or looking up again doesn't seem predictable. Forests abound, agriculture still seems pretty small-scale: This might be a boon, since (or: if) it could be changed towards organic agriculture and connected to markets which pay a premium for that….
Latvians really do seem to be into nature worship, divination of the future, and such rather un-Christian ideas… it's so well known that Latvia was just about the last country in Europe to be Christianized that I'm careful with whether it's to be believed. There does seem to be something to this idea, though ;-)
The train station of Gulbene was an eye-opener: The area is rather a backwater (the next stops on the small train were rather like those I know from back home, from the stations around the Neusiedler See: a hut and a sign), but this station is big and representative. Apparently, it would be (and have been) the rail route between Poland and St. Petersburg...
Food was pretty nice again: Down-to-earth, it would fit into Austrian rural restaurants all the same (although, on second thought, the quality seemed rather better but the portion size too small for that); in the forest, sausages were also grilled. Again not quite my thing, but with the cold, the body's "food intelligence" kicks in: Gimme fat, I'll burn it…
On the other hand, one rest stop offered a "toilet" of the hole-in-the-ground variety, the likes of which I hadn't even seen in China (and there were many "squatter"-type toilets, and some not-so-great ones, there).
Oh yes: And the starry sky we got in the night (well, when it was completely dark: starting at 4:30 pm, basically) was spectacular. Out in the country, there is so little light pollution…

Pictures to follow.

Training 01/02/2008

2008-01-02T21:04:00.000+02:00

Snowed lightly in the morning; judging by the forecast, the temps will remain below freezing.

150 days to go to Stockholm Marathon!

01/02: 01:40.14,0 - 15.49 km - 6.28 min/km - HR avg. 156 - TE 4.3

Living More Sustainably: Background and Beginnings

2008-01-01T08:43:00.000+02:00

"The (green) life challenge" is to live more sustainably and show how you are doing that,
finally not just preaching to the masses in the abstract, but "walking the talk."

Immediately, the perspective shifts:
Small changes are (well, may be) easy, but are not enough if you are really dedicated; conditions are different for different people, …
and my current situation may not be the best case. It is rather reminiscent of a critique which argued that the most sustainable lifestyle (in Germany, and not counting homeless people) may be that of a pensioner who has to pinch every penny. Such a person wouldn't consume much, after all.
Still, it is instructive not just to try to provide good ideas for others, but to do it yourself first.

At present, I'm living as an exchange student in Latvia, at a university dormitory (as readers of my blog would know). Since the beginning of December, I have a room to myself.
This is a first point to consider: shared rooms would mean less resource use? Maybe, but really the rooms are there (and heated, for example) anyways, so this doesn't make a difference. Saving on energy for heating is something I also couldn't do much about: There's central heating, the radiators are set as they are. Although, on closer thought: Mine is as it is, and it seems quite alright to me. I have seen that others bought additional electric heaters...

Electricity use, I also don't and can't know - and still, there's something:.
I could change the lighting, but it wouldn't be worth the trouble. Most of the time I only use one desk lamp and a LED reading lamp (powered either by batteries - which system I don't use often, - or via USB), anyways.
There sure is a lot less energy needs than at home, for a notebook computer and my old subnotebook are all the appliances there are: that's communication, entertainment, work...

My main expenses are for food (always an issue with many aspects, especially when it comes to green, and good, living!), books (which I'd prefer not to get any fewer of … I'm a book person), and things such as sports equipment and clothing, and DVDs (expenses for which I'd actually like to decrease a lot).

So, these "living more sustainably" entries may not be all that instructive in my own case… or they may be, since even such circumstances make for many things to think about. We'll see.

Year's End, and just more about food

2007-12-31T20:09:00.000+02:00

The last days, if not weeks, had been quite humid and cold-ish, but only just around freezing. Since this morning, it has been snowing, and finally looks like winter outside (again, to be exact).
(I already mentioned the pleasure that this is to me in a post on today's running. For that, see below. - I've decided to separate some blogs on different issues; this way, the training log and other issues - one more's soon to come - can be followed much better.)

Another notice on food:
Oatmeal (or buckwheat porridge) are widely available here, both in the form of flakes, and in the form of ready-made packages ("just add hot water").

Buckwheat porridge, I had heard before, is the major food that you'd find served at soup kitchens. - It's cheap and filling, and has been the poor peasant's staple for a while. Compare that to the price of buckwheat in "the West," let alone of soba (Japanese buckwheat noodles)! The little I've seen of it, it's also prepared very simply, just with a few spices or as plain accompaniment to some sausages or the like.

Oatmeal in the ready-made packages comes with dried pieces of apple, peach, strawberries, cranberries, or blueberries. But actually, it's no trouble to make it yourself: Just boil the oat (or other) flakes with about twice the amount of water, stirring regularly (or not), add sugar (or honey) and/or fruit to taste… This has the advantage, naturally, that you determine how sweet you make it, and whether you use fresh or dried fruit.

I only knew those kinds of (breakfast) dishes as food from olden times and because there are some backpacker's versions of hot oatmeal, but otherwise it seemed something for the grandparent's generation only. Recently, having noticed it's popularity and developing a liking for it myself, I asked in Latvian class and found that it had actually been becoming a fashionable breakfast food; a little later, on Austrian radio (FM4, which is partially English-language), they were talking about its return to popularity in Scotland.

Year-end winter run

2007-12-31T20:04:00.000+02:00

Today, it has been snowing since the morning. Finally, snow and temperatures likely to remain below zero. I want to run through the Baltic Winter.

12/31: 01:03.45,9 - 8.73 km - HR avg. 154 - TE 3.8

Prosa for Breakfast

2007-12-30T21:10:00.000+02:00

It's totally unprosaic, though: "prosa" is the Latvian word for millet.Some of that I found yesterday, and today proceeded to prepare it with some milk and apples.

Nice, wholesome, and not at all difficult. Even if our low familiarity with millet makes it seem as if there would have to be some special complication to it.

I have one draft of a blog post - on cooking - still around somewhere, and should finally post it.
Food is just one of those issues...
(Okay, the way I've done it now, you should now find that other post on food just below this one here.)

On another issue, just after I posted my thoughts on blogging, I found that article in the New York Times: "How to Lose Your Job on Your Own Time" (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/30/business/30digi.html).
Teachers drinking. There's something you aren't gonna see from me.

Training, though:
01:09.12,8 - 10.79 km - HR avg. 153 - TE 3.9
(Would have been a lower training effect, but on the last lap home I turned around to check that I was not overlooking any cars, and my heart rate jumped a bit... I should talk less about that, maybe.)

Are you eating well enough?

2007-12-30T21:00:00.000+02:00

A dormitory.
First of all, get your own pot, or you'll first have to wash up other's dirty dishes.
And, of course, the dear parents would be concerned... are you eating enough?

So, is a dorm not the place for culinary creativity, or are the restrictions a boon to creativity?
Judge for yourself - here's just some few things I came up with.
Of course, noodles and tuna, boil-and-ready ramen, and other such simple things are the standard fare... but you can make even that pretty nice.

Salmon in marinade of lime and soy sauce with cranberries on thyme arborio rice

Bruschetta of broccoli with Italian herbs, accompanied by Italian-style white bread, lightly toasted

Tortellini al formaggio with a side of roasted red bell pepper, sprinkled with Italian herbs

Risi e pisi (risotto with peas, simply)

Pasta e broccoli

A light chili of red beans, golden corn, and red pepper; Italian bread on the side

Risotto con broccoli ed olive nere (that was actually not the best of combinations ;-)

Thoughts on blogging

2007-12-29T21:52:00.000+02:00

As a weblog, the blog was intended just to document a person's travels through cyberspace, basically as a collection of (annotated) links.
Nowadays, the conventional view of the blog is that it were an online diary, which is (more or less) what I've been using it as.

There is something very interesting to them…
First of all, blogs are somewhat exhibitionist.
Or, interpreted differently, indicative of an over-blown sense of self-importance - if you see it negatively because, then again, we also follow gossip and watch TV series. In comparison to that, blogs are a way of communicating and following the little, but at least real, dramas of somebody else's daily life.

Still, whatever the interpretation, they do provide insight into a person.

That's nice, e.g. for friends and family to follow.
It can also be interesting for a wider audience (self-disclosure: I did not blog a lot before I went on my -current - first year of exchange studies with Campus Europae, which made me realize that a blog would be a way for somebody else to gain insight into what that's like, and one very different from the usual sets of guidelines and reports).

Yet, providing insight is also a potential danger:
Others can learn quite a bit about you, not just as the persona you are in the given situation in which they usually see you, but also as a person with other interests, with doubts, with dreams,… (self-disclosure, again: I'm now thinking of students at school who know me as teacher, potential academic collaborators or employers who may get a strange impression off blogs - and, in fact, off having somebody who does blog…)

Then again:
Anthropologists, at least since Malinowski (and he pretty much invented fieldwork), have been keeping field diaries of their observations; and their own condition and reactions are a necessary part of the process of fieldwork.

With Malinowski himself, field diaries and personal diaries were - provided I remember the story correctly - both kept, but separate. So, we had one idea of his method and results at first. It changed quite a bit when personal diaries were also used, and it turned out that - well, basically, that he was not a machine but a human being, and therefore sometimes cutting corners, taking a day off, getting fed up with the people he was studying…

With blogs, the situation is not all that different, but you get the person, the life, and the work all at once (depending on what's being blogged about, of course - again, this is based on my own situation of teaching, studying, trying to work as independent scientist, wanting to work in an academic setting but not seeing more than very slight chances for that, liking to teach, but not necessarily to study to become a teacher, … and blogging about just about all of it).

So, there is a danger. Or, being of the Millennial Generation, just simply a change in how people (actually or psychologically) of that generation perceive privacy and openness.

In part, I think that a problem like the one I'm currently considering is a problem of how we are led to think that life were like it is in the movies:

According to that, a researcher should have a great and grand theme.
Indiana Jones and Lara Croft have their artifacts and temples full of traps, doctors have pandemic viruses, …
In reality, much work is dull collection of data and slow-going write-up of findings.
"The researcher" should also be of a single-track mind, discovering great things all the time.
So, having a blog in which you actually talk about the slow-going can give the impression that something were wrong (with you) when it's just what it's like to be human.
And finally, the popular perception (even among many current professors) is that somebody who wanted to work in academia would naturally find work in that area and not (do / want / have to) find anything else.
Thus, I get people very confused when they learn that I'm a Ph.D., doing some research, but also studying to become a teacher, and (currently) working as a teacher already... and that yet leaves out other interests which you may not hear much about, but find mentioned online, here and there.

Of course, you could always present a different view of yourself, if you are into self-presentation and, well, slight lies. I'm rather too honest and direct, and think that the advantages of blogging outweigh the strangeness:

It's therapeutic,
stating publicly what you want to get done and how you do or don't progress with it can be a great motivation, and
it's a stumbling step to a future which will be different from the present, not least in how privacy and "publicness" of a person commingle in novel ways.

That was interesting…

2007-12-28T20:00:00.000+02:00

I feel great. First I planned rather not to go running today, then it was later than my usual time. Weather didn't look too good, either.
And then I was out and about anyways.
Temperatures slightly above freezing, very light rain, and no problems whatsoever:
12/28: 00:48.52,8 - 7.23 km - HR avg. 145 - TE 3.1
Nice to see that yesterday's high HR was probably really just an effect of something not becoming me - or so I'm telling myself, since I had been checked up medically rather thoroughly, and since these HR peaks occur but rarely.

Our cleaning lady, who I talked to again in the morning, thought it was pretty bad that my plan for New Year's is to read books and get some writing done. I rather disagree, and have spent most of this day -finally- getting some more writing on my work on parkour done. It's about time, too...

Back on after Christmas

2007-12-28T09:51:00.000+02:00

Okay,
finished a very necessary essay (on Medieval and Renaissance literature), did some fun reading ("The Book of Air and Shadows"), and got some of my own work to continue.
Not as good as I'd like to, but I guess "There's no rest for the wicked" is my unofficial life motto, anyways.
Handing in that essay, I met the dean of the Faculty of Modern Languages who told me I should also relax; I reminded him that I still owed him an essay, too ;-)

At Christmas, I didn't want to write, I didn't even plan on mentioning it.
When you just have to do something - like celebrate Christmas, go home for it, and so on - it makes me edgy... what you just have to do is what I most enjoy not doing... (and besides, Christmas is either a celebration for a family with children - not my case, or a Christian celebration - also not my case. And using it as an excuse to get drunk is so not my case...)

There is something to it, to me, only because it marks the last days of the year.
That, of course, is the best time to realize how much you wanted to get done during that year, and failed to do yet again. So, you start planning what you'll regret not having got done at the end of next year.
Okay, okay, I'm not quite as dissatisfied as that, especially since I wanted to finally live abroad again, and have obviously managed to do that; I wanted to submit a proposal for a research project, and did (and it even did provide some insight into how to do it better - of course, only in part).
I'm still all too good at ripping myself apart over not studying languages well enough, which means that I have long been learning them, but only to forget most of what I had learned before. At least, I'm finally coming back to what I really want to work and concentrate on (but here, too, the life-less-ordinary effect works: my main focus still remains on doing and connecting things conventional thinkers see as so separate that there were hardly any focus to my doings). I might start blogging a bit more about that...

Training is continuing, still with some oddities:

12/24: 01:02.14,0 - 10.17 km - HR avg. 147 - TE 3.4
12/25: 02:01.45,9 - 19.58 km - HR avg. 147 - TE 3.4
(pretty funny: twice the time, nearly twice the distance, same heart rate average, same training effect ... I hardly even realized it was two consecutive days, it just felt right)
12/26: rest (finishing the essay mentioned above)
12/27: 00:35.39,9 - 5.23 km - HR avg. 174 - TE 4.8
(I already felt a bit uncomfortable going out, and the heart rate responded in kind - and still, it didn't go through the roof, and would have hardly been noticeable to me, without the HR watch ... strange thing, that.)
Today (12/28) I may go out running, or I may do something else... I don't quite know yet.

Chill...

2007-12-23T10:17:00.000+02:00

Finally, what seems like time to sit down, relax with books, get some of my own work done.

It's actually quite interesting to see how I've come to view studies and teaching as my work, but academic things/research in sustainability issues as my *own* work...

As always, there's actually still quite a bit of work that needs doing, such as language studies, some writing for university studies, and teaching preparation.
I find that it's coming along, though. Not least because some writing I need to do should be done in the way of a teacher's website. This at first bothered me as I'm writing quite a bit online (and should like to be working on my main/other websites), but once I really started working on it, I noticed that it's actually a good idea to put more on there than just the things for that one course!)

So, less blogging, more - what: relaxing work?!

Recent training:
12/21: 00:46.21,0 - 7.47 km - TE 3.7
12/22: 00:47.58,9 - 7.7 km - TE 3.8

up to speed

2007-12-20T16:45:00.000+02:00

Some things to get the blog - or my readers, if there are any besides my parents ;-) - up to speed:

With today, my Christmas holidays have as good as begun.
Yesterday, I already had only one class to teach, then some of my 11th grade students came to tell me they wouldn't be coming and there wouldn't be class the next today… which turned out to be true (for me, as it were: project week themes are being presented during that time).
This day, I started as I wanted to start the free time: Getting back to my own writing.

What happened recently…
The package from home I had been waiting for did arrive quite quickly, after all:

Things you can inebriate yourself on ;-)

Running, and Motivation

I came across Nike's latest ad for their Nike+ kit connecting their shoes with distance sensor and an iPod … (can be seen on http://www.nikerunning.com/: "Witness the rebirth of running") ... food for thought:

The first part shows some historic reasons for why human beings have been runners (getting food or not becoming food, war and messages,…), and contrasts that with the bored modern runner on a treadmill. Then, it asks: "Need motivation?"
Okay, to that point I think it's great.

Yet, what is their answer?

To be running with the iPod plugged in, telling you how far you have gone, listening to music… which means, not realizing where you are running, not being quite aware of your body and your surroundings.
And that's supposed to be the great motivation?
Sorry, but I think it's just silly.
There, I'll rather go for Pearl Izumi's "We Are Not Joggers" campaign (http://www.wearenotjoggers.com/).

I've even come to think that my Suunto t6 is still better for serious runners than models which guide your training through coaching features.

Sure, I'd like some updates to it, but I'd rather not have my training watch tell me more than heart rate, time, speed and distance, when and if I want to look at it.

When I don't want to have technology try to tell me what to do and how I am doing, I'd rather not have it be intrusive, but listen to myself, the sounds of my footsteps, and the sounds of my surroundings.

Notes:

12/16/2007: 00:33.13,04 - 4.98 km - TE 3.4

(Still, "highly improving" training effect? I think that time, because, the software has reduced my activity level used for analysis slightly.)

12/17/2007: 00:32.34,09 - 4.82 km - TE 3.6

12/20/2007: 00:50.21,0 - 7.89 km - TE 4.3

Haven't been feeling too good recently, had too much to do for university, temperatures are quite consistently below freezing, and not having continued my own work had left me very unhappy... hope this will get better with the free days, time of "individual work" and exams in January (and teaching at school, of course... and soon enough, I'll be planning next semester. May get a bit more challenging (schedule-wise) since I need to fit lectures around the teaching schedule... and as always, I may want to do quite a bit too much yet again, but should finally be a bit more careful.
Well, we'll see. In about a month, so much I should do and hope to get done until then.
Now, on to the one or two last university lectures for this year.